Arsonist's Lullabye
by gingertintedglasses
Summary: Story picks up where "Don't Even Trip" left off. Ilmr and Loki are faced with a decision they can't turn from and journey to Vanaheim to lead a force against a foe that's no stranger to either of them. When they arrive Vanaheim they are greeted with a surprise that, once honed, could either be the weapon that turns tide in the war, or the force that will raze them to the ground.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One – An Offer of an Early Death**

A/N: Hi Everyone! Loki and Ilmr (and a whole mess of other OCs) are back! If you haven't read "Don't Even Trip", I would suggest doing so – this story will be much easier to follow if you do! Also, Author Notes will typically not be as long as this one – promise!

Apologies to those of you that followed me and/or Don't Even Trip and have waited so long for part two! I did something fantastically silly (but also something I couldn't stop myself from doing). Much like the MCU movies are linked together, unless otherwise noted (some one-shots I'll be posting, for example) all of my longer, multi-chapter stories will link together/exist in the same universe. So I had to do some editing and re-writing once I had that idea to fit together not just this story, but also another I'll be posting in the future.

This story starts from Loki's perspective and after the double page break, shifts to Ilmr's perspective for the remainder of the chapter. Most chapters will alternate between the perspectives of Loki and my various OCs.

Please note, while this is tagged as a Thor/Avengers story, much of the content is AU; much of what you will read is based on an amalgamation of information pulled from the movies as well as comics/mythology. Because of that, some liberties and changes have been made. I'll do my best to alert you to any such changes/liberties/alterations so you aren't too thrown by them.

The song lyrics in this chapter –and the title of this story- are from Hozier's "Arsonist's Lullabye". As always, I hope you enjoy. Likes, favorites, follows, comments are all welcome!

 _But my peace has always depended  
_ _On all the ashes in my wake.  
_ _All you have is your fire,  
_ _And the place you need to reach  
_ _Don't you ever tame your demons  
_ _But always keep them on a leash_

"Madam, there is a visitor here to see you."

Ilmr glanced to Loki, then skyward towards the AI's voice. The tower had closed its main entryway to the public for business several hours earlier.

"Who, JARVIS?"

The image that came to life on the screen on the wall in their living room was unfamiliar to Loki but he watched Ilmr straighten ever so slightly.

The visitor was taller than Thor and leaner, though no less muscular for it. There was poise in his stature and though the image was small, his features were familiar, if set in a countenance far more stern than he was used to.

"Inghard." The word came from somewhere behind him.

"One of your brothers."

"Yes. Originally third, now second. JARVIS, direct him to our quarters. And do not let him out of your sight."

"Of course."

"Please." She murmured, and Loki inclined his head, following her out and toward the foyer of their floor of the tower.

He noted, much to his delight and annoyance at his delight, she fiddled with her ring as she waited. He touched her back briefly and it stilled her hands.

There was no time for the word of thanks she had likely opened her mouth to say, as the elevator doors slid open and a massive, tow-headed man ducked and stepped out of the contraption.

Unlike Ilmr, he was immediately recognizable as his mother's son, tips of his elven ears peeking through his hair.

"Inghard." Her tone was hard to read, even for Loki.

"Sister. I come because I require your assistance."

She motioned down the hall, wordlessly turned, and strode away. Looking somewhat sorry to interrupt her, her massive brother followed without hesitation.

By the time Loki and Inghard arrived in the den, Ilmr had ensconced herself in the only armchair, Fenrir and Vidar lying nearby.

Loki sat himself on the couch nearest Ilmr, noting Inghard did not sit until Ilmr's nearly imperceptible nod.

"Father requires my assistance, then? Does he no longer trust Njordr to carry out a successful campaign?"

"Njordr is dead."

"The Warhammer has been felled? How?" If she grieved, she made no indication.

"Creatures. Creatures I have never seen the like of before. Their …leader came to us with a bargain. Father declared war. He and mother were slain. We managed to run them out of the palace, but little more. Calder now reigns."

Ilmr's glance to Loki was brief, but it revealed the wild madness he had seen in her before he restored her with the Gauntlet. When she turned back to Inghard, the look had vanished.

"And what would you have me do? They have slain your greatest warrior, your King, and your Queen. What do you anticipate I will be able to do?"

"They have slain our greatest warrior, yes. Not our greatest Commander. We would have you return and lead our forces against this enemy."

"No."

Ilmr looked to Loki at his interjection. She made no move to stop him, however.

"No, I would not allow her to go."

Inghard narrowed his eyes. "And who are you to say, fallen god? She is of Vanaheim and we require her aid, such that it is."

"She was exiled. And wed to me. She is of Asgard now." Loki did not remember the last time he had been glad of the realm he had known as his home for so much of his life.

A cruel smile crossed Inghard's countenance. "Then it seems she is an exile of two realms."

" _Silence_." Ilmr's harsh word cut through any others Inghard had opened his mouth to say. She turned a withering stare on her brother.

Several moments later, he looked away, cowed.

When she finally spoke, she did not turn her glare from her sibling, her voice again hard to read save for the barest moments of malice in it. "You do not come into my home and speak so. Solveig taught you better than that. You have made your request. What is it you would offer me in return, save for the likelihood of an early death?"

For that, it seemed Inghard had no response.

Ilmr looked to Loki, another unreadable expression on her face, and held his gaze when she spoke again to her brother. "We have a guest bedchamber. Make use of it. We will speak of this again in the morning and I will give you my terms."

Nodding, Inghard rose and took his leave of them.

As soon as he was down the hall, Loki circled the air to keep the conversation from her brother's elven senses and rounded on her. "You have no terms to give. You will not go."

"No? Do you not wish to be free of this realm?"

"Vanaheim is not an option."

"And why is that?"

He could have kissed her, seeing her tenacity firmly in place after so long. "They would treat you no better than before."

"I know. It matters not."

Loki narrowed his eyes at her, disliking not her implication but the risks it would entail. "What?"

She smiled wide. "Command and a crown, if you wish it, and freedom from this realm. Vanaheim can offer us that."

"That is if this enemy can be bested."

"Did you not defeat the Titan?"

Loki winced. He had had more luck in that endeavor than he anticipated. "Only out of necessity. I do not know that I would have been able to do such a thing had I not been in such need."

"Would you not find the ends worthy of the means?"

"It would depend upon the means."

Ilmr gave him a long, measured look. "Understood."

* * *

Much like his sister, Inghard did not waste time as they broke their fast.

"Have you come to a conclusion, Sister?"

Unlike his sister, he was more easily swayed.

"This _will_ wait until after I have broken my fast, Inghard, and not a moment before."

As the third son of Egil returned to his eggs, Loki found it hard to imagine that Ilmr had ever been small, had ever been picked on by her centuries-older brothers. He had seen her in utter madness, but could not imagine her as a child.

With much amusement, Loki noted that Ilmr not only took her time, she went back for an extra helping.

When she had finally finished she sat back, crossing her arms over her chest and tilting her head to one side. The look she gave her brother was calculating.

"I will not return to Vanaheim."

Inghard glared, but did not miss a step. "You must."

"How did you know where to find me?"

Another cruel smile. "While the Gatekeeper cannot see you, strangely enough, he can easily see all others: Thor, the Man of Iron. It was enough."

Loki made a mental note to commit fratricide if ever they had reason to request Thor join the battle in Vanaheim.

"So why did you come? One would not think you would look to me for assistance; to beg the help of an exile would look poorly to the people."

"Our strained relations do not mean I wish you dead."

"I am not flattered."

"Without you to command, we stand to lose."

"Especially now that The Warhammer is dead." She had yet to use her brother's name since she learned of his death.

"Midgard would likely be the next to fall."

Again her brother missed a look she threw Loki's way. Inghard could not have known of the contract, but it was silently decided: they would have no choice but to join the fight. To do nothing would break the contract with S.H.I.E.L.D. and Loki was loathe to do so. It was his only insurance he had a place he would be left to himself.

"They started in Vanaheim because Midgard has a league of warriors that it is said defeated Thanos' army, led by your Prince. Because Vanaheim exiled The Wrath of Egil."

Loki had known, when he first heard her name, that she was royalty, that she hailed from Vanaheim. He had not known she was the Commander spoken of in her father's kingdom, that such a title had preceded her.

Ilmr was yet unmoved. "My price has risen."

A frustrated sound escaped Inghard. "Whatever it is, it is unacceptable. You would think of your ill will instead of reason."

The cruel smile that they likely inherited from their mother settled this time on Ilmr's lips. Inghard looked to immediately regret his words. "Have you not heard, Brother? I am quick to anger."

Loki felt the corner of his mouth twitch as he suppressed a smile. The therapist the Man of Iron hired had truly returned her to him, though it had taken nearly a year; he had finally found a mortal to be grateful for.

Inghard was silent for a long stretch of time. He straightened before he finally spoke, as if preparing for a blow. "What would your terms be, Sister?"

"I would be returned from exile, both in the realm and the family."

Inghard raised his eyebrows. "That is all?"

"And I would be reinstated as Commander after the war is over."

Inghard bristled. "I am Commander."

Ilmr sat back with a smile. "Then you do not need me after all."

Inghard rose to tower over his sister. Vidar and Fenrir, who had been lying just outside the kitchen, growled low.

"You forget your place." Inghard made the words sound like a threat.

"I have heard that enough in my lifetime to know better than most exactly where my place is. You, Brother, seem to forget you came to me requesting my aid, potentially at the expense of my life, because you are an unfit Commander for this task." Ilmr held up a hand to halt her brother's next words. "Before you say something Vanaheim will regret, take some time to think on my offer and cool your hot head and misplaced pride."

Inghard stalked off, after a time. Ilmr remained unmoved.

"He will accept."

Loki looked up from Fenrir at her words. "Will he?"

"Calder will not let him return without me. Much like my father, Calder compromises little."

Loki nodded.

Ilmr gave him a grim smile as she spoke again. "It is likely many more of my siblings will perish before this trial is over. I cannot promise that it won't end the line of Egil entirely."

"I can assure you that it is not a likely outcome."

"Oh no?" She gave him a wry smile.

What little the therapist had divulged to Loki had taught him that she was repressing memories unconsciously. He did not understand it much, as he had argued that Ilmr had not done so before their meetings.

She had implied that Ilmr taught herself this repression as a self-defense tactic. Loki was wary of it. It had never been Ilmr's way. Still, he was conscious of the therapist's warning: pushing her too far to remember too soon would do her great damage.

"I have traveled the length and breadth of many of the universe's darker corners and seen much. There is little now that could best me."

Ilmr nodded. Their unspoken language of affection had returned it seemed, as she appeared to understand that by his words, he meant only once he was bested would one of the cosmos' more unsavory creatures be allowed near her.

"Then we will leave within a week of his acceptance of our terms."

* * *

...

* * *

"When was Njordr felled?"

It was after the evening meal and Inghard, Ilmr, and Loki had retired to the living room. As was her wont, Ilmr leaned against Vidar rather than sit on the furniture.

Inghard had accepted her terms earlier that afternoon and with his acceptance came a small break in the tension. Though he seemed engrossed in a book, Ilmr knew Loki's attention was on their conversation.

"Almost half a year ago, now. The creature that felled him did so with a strange weapon, once I have never seen before. One Njordr said he had never seen before."

That gave her pause. It did not surprise her that Inghard had not seen the weapon, he did not travel to every conflict as Ilmr and Njordr had, and was not overly observant. But for Njordr to not have recognized the weapon was strange.

"Describe it."

"It looked much like a regular blade, but it shone unusually bright and there were rivulets along the length of it that should have made it brittle, but it was not."

"The channels in the weapon are likely used to carry poison. Just to determine which one."

Inghard nodded at Loki's interjection. "Some of the more common ones can be discounted, little was able to slow him, even iron."

"Common within the Nine Realms, perhaps, but that is not to say this enemy hails from any realm you have heard of or seen. Even I, in the service of The Other and the Titan for a time, have not seen all there is to see of the vastness of the cosmos."

Inghard shrugged. "Any knowledge is helpful."

"How do you expect me to gain victory for Vanaheim in this? What has happened thus far, and what was happening when you left?" Ilmr tried only a little to keep her irritation at her elder brother at bay.

"You always had rather inventive ways at which to best our enemies, Sister. I leave the how to your imagination."

"As for what has transpired, and may still?"

"Skuld—"

"—Tell me nothing of what she has seen. She has long respected this request; see to it that you do as well."

"Mother and father have been slain. Their force seems endless in both number and strength. We have held the palace but much of our kingdom, much of Vanaheim, is becoming overrun, after so long. It took longer than anticipated to locate you."

"I ask again what it is you think I could do to turn the tide against such a foe."

Inghard appeared to cast around for a response. For all his self-importance, his glass ego, he had little to support it, to protect it. Finally he spoke, his answer sounding as though he felt it was obvious. "You are the Wrath of Egil. I have heard –seen, often enough- the plots and punishments you have devised for your enemies; surely you will be able to perform similarly in this instance."

"Ah, except it is not _performance_ , Brother. It is the result of careful study of my enemy: his land and culture and history. I am able to so keenly hone in on and destroy my enemies because I have studied them." Ilmr leveled her gaze at Inghard. "Which you may note I am unable to do in this instance, given the paltry information you have brought to me. That is if what you have brought is even the correct information."

Egil's third son looked away. Anleifr and Njordr had been the boldest and best of all her father's sons, and they lay dead.

"We will leave within the week. In that time, you will tell me all you can of our enemy, all of what you have done and what Njordr did to defend Vanaheim; most importantly: what this enemy did, how they acted and reacted. Understood?"

Inghard inclined his head, features set. "Commander."

Though it sounded like a slur, Ilmr ignored his tone and smiled.

"Good."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two – Far Better to Perish Than to Flee

A/N: Here you go! This chapter has some Adult Times within it, and I've sectioned it off with tilde's so that those of you who don't want to read it can skip over it easily.

This chapter is entirely from Ilmr's perspective. Also note that this chapter contains a departure from the movie-verse and into Norse mythology in the form of the Einherjar. Wikipedia has a good article on their role in the mythology, if you have an interest!

Hope you're enjoying it so far even though we're still in the early, early stages of this story!

Lyrics in this chapter are from Sia's "Fire and Gasoline".

 _But it's a bad death,  
_ _A certain death  
_ _But I want what I want  
_ _And I gotta get it  
_ _When the fire dies,  
_ _Dark in the skies,  
_ _Hot as a match,  
_ _Only smoke is left_

It was not until she and Loki retired that he circled the air once more and spoke of their earlier conversation.

"I fear I know the weapon Inghard spoke of. At least, what it is made of."

"Oh?" Ilmr raised her eyebrows at him in the mirror as she unbraided her hair.

It irked her, but she took pleasure in the appreciative glance he gave her. Between them, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner had found a way to rid her of the scars the Titan had given her. Pepper Potts, in her excitement for Ilmr, had taken her shopping. Ilmr had not resisted the urge to purchase a new green night shift to replace the one Thanos had ruined. It seemed Loki too appreciated the purchase.

"The weapon I used to defeat Thanos was made of a particularly strong metal. It was unusually malleable until it cooled, and then it was near indestructible. I fear this enemy has a weapon made of this material, though I do not know how he came about it."

"How did you?" She knew little of his search for her. She had not asked and he had not offered. Truth be told, she had not been in much of a state previously to hear his tale.

"By chance. I needed rest and a meal and took shelter in the first realm I passed that did not seem hostile. The creatures there, Trillets, mine a silvery substance that exists in their realm in great abundance, as gold did in Asgard. They made me a weapon from the metal in the far-flung hope I would be able to best the Titan."

"Because they trusted you, or feared you?"

"Trust. They had little to fear. Much like I mask my Jotun heritage, so too do they mask their true size. Truthfully, the one I saw shift grew from no higher than my waist to be the size of a ten story building."

"Could this adversary not have gained their trust?"

She watched Loki shake his head, face grim. "They are unusually canny. I do not think they are the sort to be misled."

Ilmr smiled at that. "So says the God of Lies." Rising, she turned to face him, regarding him quietly for a time.

She had finally felt herself for the first time in more than a year. Almost two. The Titan was dead, and yet she was throwing them headlong into a conflict with an enemy that could, and likely would, kill them.

They had both survived thus far though the odds had been against them. She thought perhaps one more test of the Norns' favor was in order.

Ilmr seated herself next to him and watched him carefully for his reaction.

"If I can place one of us in the path of this foe, we can be victorious with your blade. If we can't destroy his weapon, we can take it from him."

Loki raised his hand and ran the thin lace shoulder strap through his fingers. When he spoke, it was the tone he used to persuade her or rile her that she had not heard in far too long in such a setting.

"Place me in his path, and I will relieve him of both his weapon and his life."

Ilmr felt a sly smile grace her lips. "Oh? And what is it that you'll be relieving me of?"

He was clearly not anticipating such a response from her, given the way his pupils dilated and his eyes snapped, if only briefly, to the lace between his fingers.

Little made Ilmr nervous, but she found herself suppressing an uncomfortable, rather girlish sensation in her stomach. She realized at that moment it had been nearly four years since they had taken their pleasure in the other.

She was worried she would be terrible and too nervous. She hoped they would be awake much of the night.

Loki leaned in tentatively, still holding gently to the lace of her night shift. He had kissed her face, her knee even, since he had returned her mind to her, but he had not kissed her as he had before Thanos took her from Asgard.

And now, suddenly, he was: soft at first, his lips pressing gently but insistent, until she felt his tongue skim her bottom lip and she opened her mouth with a quiet sigh she hadn't meant to let escape.

She felt his lips curve slightly against hers in a smile before he pressed the kiss deeper, brought a hand up to rest gently around the back of her neck. Ilmr realized, feeling him pressed against her from shoulder to knee, that she had unconsciously moved closer.

His other hand came to rest on her knee and Ilmr felt herself release a breath that sounded like his name. He squeezed her knee.

There was much caution and care in his movements and he did no more than kiss her: along her throat and jaw, her mouth, until she had shifted and sat herself facing him in his lap. At that, he gripped her hips hard and ground up against her, grazing her teeth over her throat as he did so.

Without thinking, she pressed against him in return, keeping her knees splayed wide on either side of him to keep him as close as she could.

It was slow, and Ilmr realized Loki was savoring it as much as she was, after so many years, so many trials. Hands roamed freely, over and under night shift and tunic alike. Mouths too had free reign and she felt as though the taste of his mouth, his skin, was something she had nearly forgotten.

He seemed to think similarly, lapping at the hollow of her throat, teeth grazing over a sheer-shift-covered nipple, hands pressing hard and gripping tight: a man dying of thirst in the desert.

It took too long and yet no time at all before the only thing separating them was her shift. She could feel him easily through the thin fabric, bucking hard and slow against her, mimicking the way he would move inside her.

Snaking a hand between them, she wrapped her hand around his length and was rewarded with a pleasured groan as she began to pump her hand, a tight hold around him.

He did not give her long and before she knew it, she was sitting astride him facing his feet and mere moments later, she felt his tongue lave at her folds, alternating between teasing her clit and delving into her with a quick, hard press of his tongue.

She was unable to clench her mouth shut around several soft moans as he teased her with his lips and tongue and teeth and so instead she lowered her head, licking up along his length, tugging at the head of his cock with her lips, before shifting her head even lower and taking him into her mouth.

He faltered for a moment then, rocking his hips up towards her mouth before redoubling his efforts, a tight grip on her hips to keep her from shifting away when she wanted a respite.

Loki made her come twice, breathless around him still deep in her throat, before he loosened his hold enough for her to shift away from his mouth should she want. When she didn't move for a moment out of need to collect herself, he gripped her tight once more and didn't let go again until she cried out around him a third time.

Ilmr suspected he only let her go this time purely because he felt himself closing in on his climax and was as yet unwilling to let go of his self-control.

With a last long, hard lick, Ilmr released him from her mouth and carefully moved to face him, settling so that he pressed between her folds but not into them, and shifted back and forth to rub along his length. His eyebrows rose a fraction in pleasure and Ilmr smiled at the sheen on his chin left over from her climaxes.

She leaned down to kiss him and just as he slid his tongue into her mouth she felt him buck his hips just enough to press slowly inside her. Ilmr found she was not the only one unable to check a sound at the feeling after so long.

After several moments relishing the sensation, Ilmr pressed Loki's shoulders back against the mattress and rocked her hips up and down in short, hard movements that seemed as though she were trying to tug his erection higher and rub against the sensitive spot just inside her entrance at the same time.

Her let her move in such a way for just long enough to have her near her edge again before turning them over and easily pressing her knees back on either side of her head. At that moment, Ilmr was thankful for the yoga Pepper had introduced her to soon after their move into the Tower.

He drove into her again and again with such force behind his thrusts that had it not been for their position she may well have been pounded out of his reach.

His arms were quickly becoming slick with sweat and from time to time a drop or two fell from his face or hair onto her skin.

She felt the fingers on one hand twitch and she took his fidgety hand and placed it over her throat, giving his wrist a squeeze. With a groan, he squeezed with slowly increasing pressure, only ceasing but not letting up when she gave a slight nod.

At that, with each hard thrust he ground against her when he was fully sheathed within her. The ragged sounds that escaped him signaled how close he was, yet Ilmr felt him stop once more. He smiled, letting out a pleasured breath. Ilmr was still shuddering around him, his hand still at her throat, and he was in all likelihood immensely enjoying her writhing beneath him.

After several agonizing moments in which he was completely still, Loki released his hold around her throat and directed her to kneel on all fours before him, knees wide.

Sliding in as slowly as he could, Ilmr felt him simultaneously wind her hair around one hand until her head was leaned back on his shoulder, the hard hold of her hair keeping her from moving and tugging just enough in painful pleasure at her scalp.

He, however, had been moving in and out of her the entire time at a maddeningly slow pace. With a long lick of the length of her throat that ended in a bite just behind her ear, he increased his pace just as he began to hoarsely whisper. Things he had thought of doing, that he wanted to do, that he _would_ do, about the way she felt around him, the way he felt inside her. Delicious, scandalous things that made her shudder involuntarily and think that she had not been the only one waiting out her frustration with thinning patience.

His silver tongue did not need to touch her to bring her to another shuddering climax. Her vice-tight grip around him was more than he could take this time and she felt the hot pulse of his release mere moments later.

Loosening his hold of her hair and sliding that hand down around her waist, Ilmr soon found herself curled up beside Loki, both keeping close enough that he would not slip out of her just yet. They lay quiet for a time, catching their breath.

"Do you think your brother heard that?" Though Ilmr could not see his face, she could hear the sly smile in his voice.

"Did you create a sound barrier?"

Loki chuckled. "Only for our conversation beforehand."

Ilmr could not help the laugh that escaped her lips. "Then yes. And with any luck, he's sufficiently horrified the doesn't bother us overmuch for the remainder of his stay."

Again silence reigned. Ilmr could feel Loki's recovery and his breath on her neck as he leaned in closer.

"Shall we make sure of that?" The low tone was again the one that always riled her and she felt a thrill rush through her at it.

She could not keep from smiling, pushing her hips back against his. "Yes, please."

* * *

She had been wrong to worry that she was rubbish after so long. She had been right that it would last through the night. The first rays of sun were peeking over the horizon when they finally laid down and slept.

By the time they rose, it was early afternoon and Ilmr was delighted to find Inghard seated in the living room, mug in hand, and looking rather worse for the wear.

After procuring her own mug of tea she seated herself by him. "Brother."

Inghard cringed, though he made a show of trying not to. "I had thought that perhaps the marriage was purely political. Surely my sister, for all her rash decisions, would not be so _imprudent_ as to wed the God of Lies in earnest."

Loki was still in the shower.

"Did you sleep poorly? You're far more venomous than usual at this hour of the day." Between the night before and the enjoyment of her brother's discomfort, it was difficult to keep from smiling.

"I—"

"—Madam, Mr. Stark is on his way."

Ilmr did her best to suppress a smile at Inghard's discomfort. "Very well, JARVIS." She rose, speaking now to her brother. "Tony Stark built and owns this building, and most of the things in it. You would do well to be respectful."

It seemed the edge in her voice was received, given the upward tilt of Inghard's chin.

Fenrir had grown fond of the Man of Iron, though Ilmr hadn't encouraged it and Loki outright detested it. Vidar remained cautious of all but Loki.

"Ilmr. Morning. I heard you had a visitor last night." Stark was in sweatpants and a t-shirt, apple in one hand. He ruffled Fenrir's fur with the other.

Stepping aside so he could enter the space further, Ilmr motioned to her brother. Inghard rose only when Ilmr's eyebrow did.

"My elder brother, Inghard, arrived late yesterday evening."

Stark gave his hand a single, firm shake. "How's it going?"

"Poorly. Ilmr and her husband will return with me to Vanaheim by week-end."

"Whoa, what?"

"We did not have the opportunity to speak with you yet today. We must return to Vanaheim post-haste. It seems war has broken out and my brother is unable to manage on his own."

"Not everyone is a strategic mastermind, my wife." Loki came around the corner dressed for the day.

"Wait, so you're leaving? For good?"

"For the remainder of the war. It may well be that we do not return in your lifetime."

Stark furrowed his brow. "JARVIS, Blackout." At the signaling beep, Stark continued, this time speaking to Inghard. "You better have a good reason, buddy. She's invaluable to my security team and the hospital down the street kinda needs him."

Ilmr held up a hand before Inghard could retort. She made a demand of her brother instead. By her tone alone, she made it clear she was overriding Stark's question. "Tell me of this army."

"They attack only at night. They say that the enemy was near invisible in the dark, but that a deep, abiding sense of terror gripped them."

Ilmr watched her brother for a time. There was something he was not telling her.

"Go on."

Inghard glanced to Loki and Tony Stark but found no relief there.

"The one who slew Njordr, he was the only one I could see. He was small, insignificant. Until he grew."

"He grew?" Loki sat forward as he spoke. "How large?"

Inghard shook his head and Ilmr loosed a mirthless laugh.

"Oh, _Brother_ ," she began, before letting her voice take on a dangerous edge, "you did not stay to see for yourself? For _shame_."

"I would have been slain."

"And Orvar would have taken your place! Far better for you to perish than flee; you instill fear in your men when you should have bolstered their wavering confidence."

"How many siblings do you have?" Stark cut in.

"There were nine of us, originally. Now there are seven." Ilmr again turned her attention to her brother. "Some with less courage than others."

"The one who grew, he bore the weapon you'd not seen before?"

Inghard nodded to Loki. "Yes. It is he and the army."

"What did they demand of father?"

Again, Inghard shook his head.

"I am quickly tiring of your ignorance."

"I do not understand what was said. I was not there, it was merely relayed to me."

"And?"

Her third brother seemed to think for a time before speaking again. "He has not failed again and she tires of waiting." He paused. "I do not know what it should mean."

"You need not understand it." Loki sighed. "I do."

* * *

Ilmr dismissed her brother after it was clear he knew no more. At her glance, Loki circled the air.

Before she could speak, he did. "Leave, Stark."

"He may stay. I wish his counsel."

Stark had not moved from his seat, but at Ilmr's words, tossed a brief, smug smile Loki's way.

Loki rolled his eyes, but said nothing.

"I believe the army to be that of the Einherjar." Ilmr selected a text from the shelf. In the time they had been living in Stark's Tower, they had acquired a number of useful books.

"It matters not. We will not go." Loki sat back, arms crossed.

"What? Why, didn't you already agree to –and didn't he kill the big bad already?" Stark looked between she and Loki.

"Death herself is behind this."

"Whoa. Do you ever fuck things up halfway, or do you always go all-in?"

" _Enough_. We will go. He may be ignorant of much, but Inghard is not as foolish as he appears. The army _started_ on Vanaheim. They may have left for now, but make no mistake they will return. When, is the question."

"Oh shit." Stark spoke through something he was eating. "And hubster here signed a contract saying he wouldn't do any more damage to Earth than he already has. Midgard. Whatever."

Ilmr nodded. "If we stand by and wait, the fight will come here eventually and then not only will we have nowhere to go, our only security will be gone. Loki, we must go."

For the first time in a long time, Ilmr waited patiently under Loki's glare. When he finally looked away, she spoke again.

"Then it is decided."

"How do you do that without flinching? He's _terrifying_. Was that all thanks to Thanos?"

"As I mentioned before, Stark," Loki ground out from between his teeth, answering before Ilmr could, "her innate sense to question perceived authority was just one quality I admired in her. That she does not fear me is another."

"As if. You love being feared."

"Not by my _wife_."

Stark pulled a face before speaking. "So Death has an army of creepy guys that seem like they're really hard to kill. Now what?"

"Death has an army of Einherjar: warriors who died in battle and were chosen by the Valkyries to journey to Valhalla. She has an army of the dead."

One corner of Loki's mouth lifted in a joyless smile. "Likely for an attractive price, given that Valhalla is not within her purview."

"Alright, fine. They're already dead and creepy. I saw how that went in _The Lord of the Rings_. So now what?"

At Stark's question, Ilmr smiled. Her library had expanded greatly in the short time they had been in the Man of Iron's home, but she had learned that JARVIS had access to infinite knowledge.

"JARVIS, find us a solution." She leveled her gaze at Stark. "We read, Mr. Stark." She could see Stark's phone light up, notifying him of incoming documents. She was sure both she and Loki could expect the same on their devices. "We have one week."

The Man of Iron grumbled an "I _hate_ homework." But nonetheless picked up his phone and shook it in his hand in a parting gesture as he retreated towards the elevators.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three — Riddles and Ragnarok

A/N: You get to meet someone in this chapter that I'm very excited about. The chapter starts off from Loki's perspective and after the double page break, switches to the newest main character, Hillevi, and after a second double page break, the chapter wraps up from Ilmr's perspective.

To my guest reviewer, **Winter** : I'm so glad you're enjoying it and the characters – there are a LOT more where that came from in this story!

And the shout-out I meant to have in Chapter One but forgot because of how long that Author's Note was: **RM Kox** , you are an excellent human and have been hugely helpful and supportive!

Lyrics in this chapter are from The Offspring's "Half-Truism".

 _If we don't make it alive  
Well it's a hell of a good day to die  
All our light that shines strong  
Only lasts for so long_

Given what Inghard had told them of their enemy, the three arrived in Vanaheim just after dawn. Loki had not set foot in the realm in decades. Centuries, even, and certainly never in the kingdom Ilmr hailed from.

Fires smoldered: the remnants of camps and the burning of trees that had been halted before too many were lost. In the distance by the newly-burned tree line was a pile of dark and light forms, some in armor, all covered in blood.

"It seems our enemy has returned in my absence. Alfheim is sending a contingency, if they are not already here." Inghard proceeded toward the palace as he spoke.

"How many, and why did you not mention this to me previously?" Ilmr seemed to ignore the sights before her as if they were unchanged from when she last laid eyes on them.

"Nearly five hundred."

"That is not even a quarter of their forces. Does Alfheim care so little for the loss of one of its daughters, or are you a particularly useless negotiator?"

Silence seemed to be the only answer Ilmr would receive. She did not voice her displeasure until they reached the palace and she began barking orders to Inghard who, with jaw set, obeyed.

He had never seen the halls of her father and though far different than those of Asgard, it was nonetheless spacious. What were likely wide, airy windows in peaceful times were shuttered panels, intricately carved and painted.

The halls appeared to be as old as those of Odin's, though there were a variety of places in which, rather unexpectedly, the wood looked new-carved or freshly-painted: repairs made after the battle in the palace half a year ago.

And, much like Asgard, the palace had a meandering, winding way about it that was intended to discombobulate. Fortunately, it would only take him a matter of days to learn the lay of the grounds.

There were many interior courtyards, he discovered, the only open windows looking out onto these protected grounds. While the flora in Vanaheim and Asgard looked similar, there were plenty of species that differed between the two not just by sight, but by function. He knew many from his studies, but there was such a variety in what he saw just passing a handful of courtyards, there were far more than he could name.

Ilmr first brought them to the armory and though she had not been present in her father's halls in several years, not one soldier appeared surprised to see her or question her demands and inquiries.

A dissatisfied smirk adorned her face after a report on the inventory and the state of disorganization in which her brother left the armory she clearly considered hers.

Loki labored under no illusion that the elves present were ignorant of the All-Speak, and yet Ilmr spoke in her native language when she gave her orders. With just a few short words to two elves in particular, the armory began to hum with activity and the space was reorganized to her specifications and orders were sent to the smithee.

Loki twitched a finger discreetly. "Coursing rabbits, are you?"

An amused expression flitted across Ilmr's face. "If there are enemies in this house, I would have them flushed out all the sooner. My brother is too trusting. Let them think you do not understand our language; I would see who would try to use it against you."

He merely nodded, and dropped his enchantment.

It was only once she was satisfied that her changes were well under way that they ascended the wide, richly colored wooden stairs once more. Though the walls and ceiling were beautifully carved and kept wood, the floors, every tenth meter, had a large marble stone set in them.

The halls of his childhood, while breathtaking in their own right, were far different, and Loki was reminded again of the appreciation he had for elven craft.

* * *

It was midafternoon when Loki found himself approaching Calder with Ilmr, her hand resting in the crook of his elbow.

Her eldest remaining brother sat stock-still and straight on his throne in robes of purple and silver. His hair, rather unlike Ilmr or Inghard, was mousy brown and fell just past his shoulders. His bearing, while strong in it's own right, was not the noble grace of the elves and for it, was less intimidating that those of his siblings who took after their mother's side more than their father's.

"Calder." Ilmr spoke as she rose from genuflecting.

"Ilmr." He turned his gaze on Loki. "Prince Loki."

It had been a long time since anyone had used his title.

"Inghard has spoken with you?"

Calder nodded, his expression guarded. "He has. You ask for much."

"Do I? In a handful of months not only has this mysterious enemy slain your King and Queen, but your greatest warrior. To say nothing of the Commander who sought me out, at your behest, to return because without me you would all perish."

Calder's jaw worked. It seemed, of Egil's children, the business of getting under the skin of others was Ilmr's domain.

"Your requests will be honored if the results are favorable."

Ilmr raised her chin slightly. "Spoken as the true son of your father."

Before she could fully turn herself and Loki to go, Calder halted them. "There is something more, Sister." He held a folded parchment to her. It was not new, given the state of it. "Part of Njordr's will. He left something to you."

She received it expressionless but as she read it, and then clearly at least once more, the furrow in her brow deepened. Ilmr held the paper to Loki. He took it with haste and found himself reading it twice over to ensure he was not mistaking what was written.

 _In the event that I perish in battle, I hereby declare my sister, Ilmr Egildottier, guardian to my heir._

Loki kept his features masked, but gave Ilmr a meaningful look as he handed the parchment back to her.

It was then she looked to Calder. "Yet another important note that your brother forgot to mention."

Calder smiled cruelly at that. "Had you known of Alfheim's aid or Hillevi, you would not have come."

Ilmr did no more than nod once. Loki wondered at the rage she likely contained. "And what will I do with a child while I'm absent at war?"

"That is your decision, now. She resides in Njordr's quarters, in the East Hall."

"Her mother?"

"Dead in childbirth."

Loki saw Ilmr raise an eyebrow at this.

"Strange. What complications were there?"

At her question, Calder's cruel smile finally dropped. An unsettled, uneasy look came over him. When he spoke, it was nearly a whisper. "None. She was perfectly healthy. She birthed the child and died almost immediately."

Ilmr nodded, taking only a few minutes to look her brother over before turning to Loki. "Let us visit our new charge."

* * *

The child was small, no more than five years of age, with strawberry blonde hair. A nursemaid watched over her, but made a quiet exit at Ilmr and Loki's approach. Though Ilmr did not know this servant, she apparently knew Ilmr.

"Hillevi." Ilmr pitched her voice lower, but not so low as to mimic the tone that she knew Loki was so fond of.

Before her name had been spoken, the girl made no motion to indicate she knew they were there. Upon hearing her name, the girl's head snapped in their direction, dark eyes taking in her visitors.

"You are Ilmr." Her voice was small, but utterly sure.

"Yes."

"You will look after me now."

Ilmr hesitated. "So it would seem."

Loki's hand was at her shoulder. With one finger out of Hillevi's line of sight, he made a circular motion before speaking. "She is observant, and confident."

Ilmr nodded, watching Hillevi's eyes narrow as she tried to discern why she could not hear her aunt's companion's voice, even as his lips moved next to Ilmr's ear. Loki would not reveal his skills to this child. Not yet.

" _Think_ , Ilmr. We are here to battle Death herself. Her first _act_ was to kill her mother. If we train her properly, we can use her to our own ends."

Ilmr turned what likely would have been a wide smile into a kind, soft smile, as though Loki had talked sense into his hard-hearted wife. A twitch of his finger, again out of Hillevi's sight, and the enchantment was expanded to include the girl now.

"Hillevi, I...do not know what will happen now. I am here because your uncles need me to lead the kingdom's forces against this enemy."

"The one that killed my father." There was no waiver in her small voice.

"Yes."

"Did he teach you to fight?"

"No. Our eldest brother did, long ago. I was no older than you, when I began to learn." Ilmr continued to prove her value to Loki. If the girl was taught to fight by both she and Loki, she would be a force to reckon with.

Ilmr had been right to think that her words would put the girl's mind into motion. Hillevi picked up her eyebrows. "I would like to learn."

"I could teach you."

"Do you have the elf-gift, too?"

"How do you use it?" Ilmr turned the question back on this girl; acknowledging that she did not possess it would earn her no trust.

At that question, the girl seemed unsure of herself for the first time. "They don't know."

Loki crouched. "What do you mean?"

Hillevi flicked her eyes to Loki and back to Ilmr. "Who is he?"

"My husband. Loki."

"Why couldn't I hear him?"

At that, Loki smiled wide. "Answer me, and I will show you."

Hillevi regarded him then, her unusually dark eyes analyzing. "I _mean_ , no one knows what I can do. It's not like Father's, or either of my other aunts. I can't do one thing."

Loki raised an eyebrow. "You can do many?"

The girl nodded.

With a widening grin and a twitch of his fingers, a small green light appeared in Loki's hand. "Then I believe I can also be helpful."

Hillevi's eyes widened, if only briefly. "Can you teach me that?"

"I can teach you how to use whatever it is you are capable of."

The girl nodded. She clearly had received from her new guardians what her father, aunts, and uncles would not give her, and so was willing to agree to much in order to receive the skills she so desired.

Loki extended a hand. "We have yet to see our chambers, however I believe the King knew of this arrangement and has seen to it that we have appropriate space for you in our quarters. Would you care to join us? We would be able to begin training immediately. And," he leaned closer to the girl before whispering, "your other aunts and uncles will not know and so will not be able to stop you from learning what you wish that they have thus far denied you."

Hillevi took his hand.

* * *

...

* * *

The quarters of Ilmr and Loki were large - as large as those she and her father had inhabited, though she had not been allowed to live in them, after his death and had been moved to a much smaller space. She knew her new guardians had arrived when she was hastily bathed, dressed in finer clothes than she had been allowed to wear in some time, and brought back to her father's chambers without reason.

Upon entering, there was an airy antechamber with space for the trappings of armor and outer vestments. Several meters in the space widened on both sides and became a large sitting room with a wall of windows and a long balcony on one side the looked out over one of the many the courtyards enclosed on all sides by the palace.

The opposite wall housed a large fireplace with a slightly raised, slate hearth and stone cladding. Opposite the entry to the antechamber, a curved, carved archway, leading presumably to the bed and bathing chambers, was flanked on either side by rows of bookshelves.

The fireplace was host to several deep settees and lounges, while near to one end of the windows, closest to the antechamber, was a desk where Hillevi assumed she would find either Ilmr or Loki ensconced on many an occasion. At the other end of the wall of windows sat a sizable table with half a dozen chairs.

At a nod from her aunt, Hillevi wandered further and discovered a hallway that branched off into four shorter ones, housing three bedchambers and a bathing room.

The largest bedchamber, off to the left, she assumed would belong to Ilmr and Loki. It had one wall which continued the windows from the sitting room, these too opening onto a balcony, more bookshelves on the opposite, a large, inviting-looking bed and two large armoires. Even then, there was more than ample space for any other furniture or belongings they might have had.

The middle chamber was likely the smallest, though even then it was larger than her current bedchamber was. It had two floor-to-ceiling windows and a large skylight. A sizable bed, a smaller version of the desk from the sitting room and a small set of bookshelves on either side of the door completed the furniture.

The bathing room was next, which was as large as the second bedroom, with a slate floor and a deep tub likely able to hold several people. A vanity with an ornately framed, oval mirror sat on one wall while a large, square window covered over discreetly by a deep purple, flowing drape sat on the other. Hillevi had the impression of taking many long baths to make up for those she missed in the months between her father's death and her aunt's arrival.

The last bedchamber, off on the right, was larger than the second, but not quite as large as the first. It had half a dozen windows that stretched almost to the ceiling from the floor and had a smaller version of the balcony the first bedroom had, overlooking another, smaller interior courtyard. Another desk surrounded by bookshelves, a settee, a deep armoire and, blessedly, another large, comfortable-looking bed completed the space.

Hillevi hoped this last room would be designated as hers, but knew better than to ask; such questions, she had learned, earned her the opposite of her desires.

"What do you think?"

She did not know how he did it; as more than half elven, she should have been able to hear Loki coming up behind her. She imagined he used some aspect of his abilities to conceal his steps. She could hear Ilmr approaching from down the hall.

"They are sizable and well-appointed."

Loki nodded, looking over as Ilmr appeared in the doorway.

"This room will be yours, if you wish it." Her aunt folded her arms across her chest as she spoke, more an air of ease than sternness in her posture.

Hillevi hesitated only a moment. They had promised to teach her both to hone her elf-gift and teach her the art of war. "Yes."

Ilmr nodded. "Then we will send for a servant shortly and have your affects moved into this chamber before nightfall."

"You are tutored at a rate beyond your years." Loki walked the room easily, inspecting it as he did.

Hillevi felt an indignant thrill rush through her but suppressed it her best. "Yes. I am."

Loki smiled, reading easily into her ill-concealed tone. "Good. I will speak with your tutor on the morrow and have lessons incorporate teachings from other realms. I would imagine much of your study has been focused on Vanaheim alone and the wider history of the Nine Realms."

Hillevi nodded slowly, irate at his correct assumption but unable to deny the lure of knowledge she hadn't expected to gain until she was old enough to seek it out herself.

"Yes."

"Then we will be changing that." He regarded her for a moment and Hillevi had the sensation that she was being read as easily as a book no matter how she tried to hide. "Are you bored, Hillevi?"

Again, she hesitated. "My tutor does not feel it necessary to teach me too far beyond what I am currently learning until I have grown older."

Loki tsked and glanced to Ilmr, who nodded. "Then we shall be having words with your tutor." He looked back down to her, a mischievous smile curving his lips and dimpling one cheek. "You will learn at your own pace. The insolence of your tutor will no longer be tolerated. Intelligence may not be a trait they value, but they will learn to."

Hillevi merely nodded and did her best to contain an eager grin.

* * *

...

* * *

Ilmr found herself spending much of her time until dusk in her new chambers with Loki and her brother's daughter. Who, she supposed since his death, was her daughter.

Hillevi was fascinated with Loki's abilities and what it meant for her own skills. Though not the sole outcast of the family as Loki had been, she was nonetheless the outsider in that she was the only one, to use her phrasing, who couldn't do "one thing" but many. She had also procured a promise from Ilmr that she would receive practice weapons fit for a child her size.

Hillevi, for all her fascination and glee at the prospect of minders who would finally teach her the things she wished to be taught, was a rather canny girl.

There was something about this girl that was unsettling. Perhaps it was her father's death, but she was very still and quiet, even in her delight. She was confidant and discerning and, much to Ilmr's satisfaction, disliked being spoken to as though she were as young as she was.

Loki spoke true: this girl they could use to their advantage. Ilmr's siblings had already set themselves up to be foolish in Hillevi's eyes.

Under the guise of preparing for battle, Ilmr spoke with Loki within an enchanted dressing chamber to keep Hillevi's ears from their conversation.

"How are you so sure that she will help us turn the tide?" It was good to don her Vanarian armor again. It made her feel so much more herself than she had been in years. She was in far better practice than she had been in a long time, having been able to practice in Stark's tower, but Ilmr held no illusions that she was as swift and sure on the field as she had been before the Mad Titan took her. It would return to her, she knew. She only hoped it would return before it cost her her life.

Loki gave her a mischievous, knowing smile. "I believe it to be another of Death's riddles."

"Oh?"

"Thanos could not have her no matter how much destruction and death he wrought because he himself did not die. So too do I think this to be another riddle."

"And Hillevi is the key?"

"Yes. Hillevi plucked life from her mother's womb. She carries it with her."

Ilmr nodded. "How can you be so sure?"

"You have seen as much as I know: there is balance in everything. Since I fell into the abyss the balance has been upset. With Hillevi, we can wipe clean the slate and begin again."

"Ragnarok."

Loki nodded. "Even so."

Ilmr could not halt the expression she felt pass over her features. "Jotuns were one thing. This is something else entirely."

Loki turned from buckling his armor and placed himself in front of her, stilling her own final preparations. "Yes. But it may not be what you think it is. I have told you –and you have seen- the fool Odin was. He hears prophecy and thinks it fact, immutable; that his interpretation is the only one, the correct one. He has often been wrong though he has always been loathe to admit it. I am right, in this."

Ilmr nodded. It was enough. It would have to be; there was no way in which they could turn back. If he were wrong, they would not live to bear the consequences. If he was right, they might, if they could last long enough for Hillevi to learn all she would likely need to.

"Then we will begin training her on the morrow. We will trade off shifts; one sleeping while the other trains her before we return to the field."

Loki nodded. "I will take the first shift with her, I am most interested to see what she can do."

Ilmr nodded, buckling her sword in place across her back, giving him a small smile as she did so. "Perfect. Shall we go forth and shame my family, then? They seem to think the only way to remain alive in this is to retreat. Shall we prove to them otherwise?"

A slightly manic grin alit on Loki's face. "Please."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four – The Girl and The Engineer**

A/N: We'll meet more of Ilmr's family in this chapter! I'm trying to introduce them somewhat slowly as there's seven of them. More Hillevi –and Tony Stark makes an appearance!

 **pixelerrante** : I'm glad you found this sequel! There's a lot of new things - environment _and_ characters - I hope you enjoy!

This chapter will start from Ilmr's perspective before switching to Loki and finally back to Ilmr for the end of the chapter. All perspective changes are indicated by a double page break. Lyrics in this chapter are from Lorde's "Glory and Gore".

 _There's a humming in the restless summer air  
And we're slipping off the course that we prepared  
But in all chaos there is calculation_

Days. That first night seemed to drag on for days, to Ilmr. She was glad to find that her practice had not been for naught – she made few missteps. She could still fight with Loki beside her as if they had not missed a day of sparring in their clearing in Asgard.

When first light finally crept over the horizon, their enemy vanished. They had not lost so many, this time. And though the enemy was near impossible to see in the darkness, their unnatural, bright eyes gave them away.

Inghard was wrong that they were difficult to kill. They were harder to see, certainly, but she was awash with dark, dark blood as she trekked back towards the palace with her contingency. Their enemy died just as easily as any other foe. There were simply more of them.

She looked forward to the arrival of the Man of Iron with Fenrir and Vidar later in the week. Tony Stark had refused to stay behind and she could not deny him; any assistance offered she would accept. She was hesitant to bring either Fenrir or Vidar into this fray, but she had no choice. They had both been well-trained and seen battle. Fenrir was now large enough that he had to wear his collar indoors at all times, far too large for even the high ceilings in Stark's tower.

* * *

"Whoa."

It was the first childlike utterance Hillevi had loosed and the first indication Ilmr knew of the girl's return with Loki from their practice. It was likely Loki had silenced their approach. Equally likely, however, was Tony Stark's chatter that was almost too quick for her to hear herself think, much less anything else.

Ilmr turned with a smile at Stark's speechlessness at the sight of the girl. Hillevi was clearly taken with the two huge hounds and seemed for all the world not to notice or care for their growling.

They had grown again or they had worn their collars entirely too much in the last months in Stark's tower. Both Fenrir and Vidar appeared glad to be free of the confines of Loki's magic and finally their true sizes.

"Hillevi, I would like you to meet our hounds, Vidar and Fenrir." Ilmr gestured to each in turn before turning to the Man of Iron. "And this is Tony Stark."

They sized each other up, the small girl and the engineer. He was more impatient.

"Did someone seriously let you two have kids? And why didn't you say anything about her?"

"We did not have a child, Stark." Loki's voice came from behind them as he shrugged off his greatcoat. Ilmr watched Hillevi smile at Loki's scarce contained annoyance. "We have adopted her from Ilmr's late brother."

Stark tossed an arm out in Loki's direction. "You can't be serious. Him? _He_ got the parenting vote? The God of Mischief and Lies? How is Earth possibly considered the backwoods of the universe?"

"Really?" A second childlike utterance from Hillevi, this one far more adoring. "Mischief _and_ lies?"

It seemed her existence on the fringe of the family had parlayed into equating sorcery such as hers and Loki's with trickery and deceit. Ilmr was not entirely surprised.

Ilmr smiled sweetly at Tony. "She seems to think he will suit just fine."

"She's like three!"

Hillevi turned her dark eyes on the Man of Iron. "I am five." She narrowed those eyes, peering at the orb in Stark's chest. "What are you?"

"Human."

"Midgardian." Hillevi looked back towards Loki at his voice.

"I did not realize they looked so…strange."

At that, Loki loosed an earnest laugh, the sort Ilmr had not heard since his imprisonment. Stark shuddered at the sound. Hillevi, she noted, merely smiled.

"Mr. Stark is peculiar. The light in his chest is unique to him and by it, he remains alive and a particular suit he has created is powered by it." Ilmr watched Hillevi glance back to the light at her explanation.

With little more than a nod, the girl turned her attention to Vidar and Fenrir. The former was growling low, the latter silent but alert. Truly her father's daughter, Hillevi strode to Vidar first without hesitation and touched a hand to his enormous paw. At this first contact Vidar growled himself quiet and sat watching her quietly instead for several moments before looking to Ilmr.

With a single nod, Ilmr commanded: "Guard." Moments later, he slid carefully to lie down beside Hillevi.

Loki's voice came from behind and to the right of Ilmr. "Fenrir, guard." Fenrir too would look after Hillevi, but now that he was finally sure she was no threat, he bound over to her and in his gigantic, puppy way, nuzzled her. Even centuries younger than Vidar he was nearly the same size. Ilmr was glad of the care he took in snuffling the girl, who seemed even smaller standing between the monstrous animals.

It was then Ilmr noticed Stark looking between them as though they'd all grown an extra appendage. "What is wrong with you? They might step on her and not know it. Oh my god. _Who_ thought you'd be good parents?"

"My father." Hillevi's small, muffled voice came from where she'd buried her face in Fenrir's fur. "He's dead. I belong to Ilmr and Loki now."

Stark set his lips in a thin line, his expression approaching disapproval as he turned his gaze away from the child. "Nice."

"If you have nothing constructive to bring to our attention, Stark, I would request you visit your chambers." Ilmr gave the Man of Iron a sweet, sweet smile. "Westward down the hall and the third door on the left."

Wagging one finger, Stark picked up a red and gold suitcase that was likely a compact version of his suit and showed himself out.

"Are they for me?" At Hillevi's question that sounded innocent but by no means was, Ilmr turned to see her curled up between the two hounds.

"No. Vidar belongs to me, Fenrir to Loki. They will protect you, however."

Hillevi thought that over before nodding. "May I have one?"

With a small smile, Ilmr agreed. "Someday, yes."

* * *

"I believe I am right about her, you know."

It was several hours later when Hillevi's nursemaid returned to look after her that Ilmr and Loki returned to the battlefield with their hounds in tow.

"Oh?" Ilmr could not see Stark. After briefing him on what they had learned their first night, he wisely if begrudgingly kept all lights on his suit off and painted over the light in his chest.

It seemed as though the Einherjar –because they had been correct in that, at least- had as much trouble finding them in the pitch dark. That's what had done earlier parties in: their use of light to see the enemy. It was harder this way, but at least if the enemy was no less accurate, it did take them longer to find their prey. Not much longer, granted, but enough so that Ilmr and her contingencies could begin to even the score.

"She is a gifted telekinetic. She will be able to move mountains when I am finished with her." He smiled slightly in the dark, teeth gleaming in the dull moonlight. "And I have much faith that I mean that in the most literal sense."

Ilmr felt herself smile wide at that. "Between your training and mine, she will truly be a terrifying force on this battlefield."

"Enemy ahead, five hundred yards. Looks like a good size group." Stark had fitted both she and Loki –and her generals, with earpieces. With the use of his _night vision_ he was able to see their enemy without use of light.

With elf-quiet tones she heard her generals give their orders and their various battalions, where orders were passed on in gesture to those non-elven soldiers, before the near-silent shift into position. Giving Loki a smile, Ilmr stepped up closer and prepared for battle.

It was exhausting, though they had gotten a quarter of a day's rest. The Einherjar, true to tales, were near tireless. When they were able to slay one, it appeared to evaporate in mere moments into nothingness. The only dead on the battlefield by daybreak each day were their own. The dark figures Ilmr had seen upon their arrival in Vanaheim had not been the enemy, she realized, but burnt bodies of fallen Vanirian soldiers.

It was nearly an hour after midnight when Ilmr heard Loki snarl beside her and, with a quick flash of a dagger, slay one of the Einherjar. Before it could evaporate moments later, Loki cast out a blue hand and froze the fallen enemy. In a third blink of her eye, he vanished the creature into the folds of his armor.

Good. They would be able to study their enemy.

* * *

...

* * *

"What the hell is _that_?"

With a barely-contained roll of his eyes, Loki turned his head slightly to the sound of Stark's ever-irksome voice.

"One of the Einherjar. Dead and frozen. If we are able to examine one of these creatures, we would know far better how to battle them."

The sound of scurrying feet and more deliberate steps immediately behind reached his ears and Loki turned fully. He had never found the idea of a child appealing and that had yet to change. He was, however, beginning to feel a kinship with the small, strange girl that he and Ilmr had taken under their purview a fortnight before.

"No, I mean, how did you—"

"—Wow!" Hillevi was typically very reserved, as much as he had been as a child, if not moreso, but each time something had crossed her path that she had true interest in, she had been unable to contain her excitement.

"Whoa, hey." Stark shifted to hide the body from view. "You shouldn't be in here."

With the quirk of an eyebrow, Hillevi scurried past him and clambered onto the tabletop where the body was resting, kneeling next to it's head.

"Do not get too close, it's far too cold for you to touch." To keep it from evaporating before they were finished with it, Loki had kept it so cold only he was able to handle it.

"She _should_ be here, Stark. She is my charge and I brought her here for the purpose of watching our examination. I would have her first experience with these creatures be one such as this, not on the battlefield in the dead of night with them shrieking and snarling all around her."

Loki took note of both Stark's disgusted look and his silence. Without giving him more than a few moments to speak again, Loki began examining the creature. Much to Hillevi's apparent delight, he allowed one hand to become it's naturally unnatural blue and on one finger, grew a knife-sharp blade of ice with which he began cutting into the frozen creature with ease.

"Can you teach me to do that?" Hillevi's voice was wonder-filled as she stared unblinking as Loki worked.

He was not sure why he felt any sort of kinship with this strange girl. Her similarity to himself as a small child, perhaps. Or perhaps because of her question: much like Ilmr, she did not fear what he was. Did not seem to factor it into her interactions with him in any way.

"I fear I cannot. It is not magic, Hillevi. It is what I am. The magic is my Asgardian face." He waited until she was looking at him to continue. "I am a Frost Giant, by birth."

Hillevi had heard of his kind, it seemed, for her eyes went wide. Whatever she had been told, however, did not appear to have made the same impression it had on most others. "Can I see?" She sounded delighted. As though she had wanted nothing more than to see one such as him for herself since she had first heard of them.

Ilmr had been one of a very few to have seen him in such a form. It had been several years since that moment. In that time, much had happened.

He still despised what he was, that much he knew, but he had begun to use it to his advantage; Tdenas' words ringing in his head each time: _whether you claim them or not, that is what you are. I could deny my heritage, my Trillet-ness, but I would be no less what I am for it. It seems a waste of time_. He had been unable to deny the truth or rationale in the words.

And so, he nodded. "Yes." He cast a glance to Ilmr who nodded. She would alert him should any approach. "Be sure you do not touch me until I say you may."

He watched her shift back on her heels slightly in anticipation before allowing his magic to fall away and reveal his true skin: brilliant blue and scarlet-eyed with clouds of cold air rolling off his skin. His markings, he knew, were dark blue and bold from the torture of the Titan.

Eyes wide and bright, Hillevi took several small, sure steps closer.

"Holy shit, you never told me you moonlighted as Nightcrawler. This explains so much." Stark had taken a step back but did not make an effort to still his tongue.

Before Loki could do more than glare, Hillevi had cut in. "May I touch your skin now?"

He was unsure if this was the fearlessness of her father or the aunt that had adopted her, but it was clearly in the blood of some of Egil's descendants. He nodded, holding a hand to her. "You may."

She turned his hand over in her own far smaller ones, marveling at his strange fingernails. "You're so cold."

"Yes. Where my kind hail from is a barren, frozen wasteland. Frost Giants have a magic of their own in their ability to manipulate water and snow and ice."

"May I touch your face?"

"No."

For all that he had grown and accepted in the years since discovering his heritage, Loki labored under no illusions that he was comfortable with that much. Only Ilmr had been allowed to touch his markings twice. Once out of necessity when she helped to mend his injuries and the second time had only been recently in an unusually quiet moment they had shared.

"Loki." Ilmr pitched her voice low and urgent from where she stood several paces away.

With no more than a nod, Loki called his magic back and he looked himself again by the time Inghard swept into the room, several of Ilmr's siblings he had not yet met in tow.

"I did not believe it when I heard it." Inghard stopped next to his sister who gave him a look that could only be described as long-suffering indulgence.

"Believe, brother." A sibling who bore much resemblance to Ilmr, in both his copper-colored hair and distinct lack of elven ears had spoken. He was shorter than Inghard, but made up for the half-foot difference in the broadness of his shoulders.

"Tyr." Ilmr moved a hand in Loki's direction. "My husband, Loki."

A wide grin spread across his features, much to Loki's surprise. Both Inghard and Calder had allotted him little more than aloof pleasantries. "It seems I have one brother who is not the fool my others are."

Loki returned the smile with a small, wary one of his own. "No indeed."

"His flattery often leads to many requested favors." Inghard glared down at his younger brother.

"I prefer to think I'm efficient." The smile had turned sweet and Loki made a mental note to ask Ilmr if she had neglected to tell him of a twin.

Ilmr's last as-yet-unnamed brother scoffed. "Does your sloth know no bounds?"

"And Orvar." Ilmr smiled. "My family's answer to Volstagg, though far more gluttonous, if I do say so myself."

Loki would have found that hard to believe had it not been for the sheer size of this last brother's waistline. As with Calder, brown hair brushed his shoulders. Also similar to Calder, it seemed there was nothing elvish about this brother; Loki had never met an elf that looked thusly. He took after his eldest brother and, in all likelihood, his father's side of the family.

"Yes, lovely. _How_ did you come about this creature?" Inghard snapped, clearly unhappy having to ask his question a second time. Being ignored was not a pastime of his, apparently.

"The Man of Iron, with his suit, was able to capture one before it evaporated. He has been able to keep it cold enough that it will not disappear before we are through with it." Ilmr supplied, gesturing to Stark.

For all his bumbling idiocy, Tony Stark could read more subtext than he liked to let on, and he smiled wide, too humbly to be humble. "It's a new feature on the suit. Great for ice cream in the summer. Or capturing Houdini's bastard children."

"And how do we examine this creature without losing it?" Inghard gave a smug smile and Loki saw Ilmr's lips twitch minutely. Her brother was going to attempt to outwit Stark. Loki would have given him the odds if he didn't know Inghard's arrogance outweighed his intellect.

Stark rolled his eyes in such a way that Inghard looked to be restraining himself from launching at the mortal. "Why do you think I called _the sorcerer_ in? I can keep it frozen while he voodoos us some results."

Inghard cracked his jaw and said nothing.

"Great!" Stark clapped his hands together once. "We'll report back with results. For now, I'd like to ask for some privacy. Science and magic both require concentration and you," he motioned to the three brothers in their presence, "are all kinds of distracting."

Ilmr nodded to Stark and Loki before turning to her brothers and, Loki imagined, gave them a most withering look if the speed with which they took their leave without protest was any indication.

After several moments of silence and a gesture from Ilmr, Loki encased the room in silence before he spoke. "You may come out now, Hillevi." He noted the girl's disappearance when Ilmr had said his name initially and was not surprised to find that she materialized next to him on the table where she had been seated initially.

She met Loki's eyes. "I dislike them."

He nodded. "I'm not fond of them myself. Do they know you are familiar with invisibility?"

At that, Hillevi smiled wide and mischievously. "They think I'm good at hiding."

Loki laughed. Again Stark shuddered and Ilmr and Hillevi simply smiled. "There is much I will be able to teach you."

"Can we go back to the part where you're blue and she's Sabrina?" Stark interrupted. "Seriously, is that what you really look like? How much does everyone else hate it that we're keeping it a secret?"

"Even the smallest are at least a foot or two taller than I am." Loki smiled. "Though not nearly so kind. And yes. Were they to know, it would be…" he thought for a moment for the right wording. "I believe the Midgardian colloquialism is _witch hunt_. Though this would end in a rather literal lynching."

Without batting an eyelash, Stark changed the subject, looking to Hillevi. "And what about you, girlie? Are you going to Hogwarts or something?"

Hillevi scowled. "You're only funny if everyone else understands you."

Stark smirked.

"Who taught you that you could make yourself invisible?"

"No one. My father discovered I was able to vanish but kept it to himself. The others are too stupid to see it."

Stark looked to Ilmr. "You're sure she's not your kid? She's super snarky and magical like him and she looks like you."

"Njordr too had red hair."

"So you, her dead dad, and what, your twin brother?" Stark had taken note as well, it seemed.

"Tyr is no twin, though we are the closest in age than any of the others, a mere ten years apart."

"Any others to meet? I feel like I should meet a wizard and a Balrog next."

"Two sisters. Who you might meet once we are finished here." Ilmr redirected Stark.

With a nod, Loki began again to cut into the body of the creature.

* * *

...

* * *

Once Loki had dissected the creature to his satisfaction and Hillevi had peered at its innards to hers, Ilmr brought her away to begin training her.

Though her chambers had been emptied of her possessions before she had left for Asgard to seek a place in the realm's forces, she still had many things hidden around the palace that she had been unable to carry with her or bring for practical purposes.

One such item was the wooden practice sword Anleifr had gifted her when she was little more than Hillevi's age.

"This was mine, when I was your age, and I gift it now to you. We'll begin with basic positions and movement. Once you've a good handle on those things, we'll add some form. After that, we'll begin sparring. From there, it's adding new forms and practice. Much practice. If you wish to be of use to yourself on the battlefield, you will practice as often as you can."

Hillevi's eyes had widened so much Ilmr suspected the girl hadn't heard much of what she'd said. She was proven wrong. "I will. The nursemaid leaves me alone frequently. Practicing in secret should not be a problem."

"Which nursemaid is this?"

Hillevi shrugged. "When can we begin sparring?"

Ilmr smiled slightly. She would allow Loki to pull the information from Hillevi. The girl had taken to him rather quickly and Ilmr was inclined to let her take her time trusting each of them in turn. It would bear out.

"If you practice each day, within a few years you will be ready to face our foes. By the time you are twenty, I would imagine. If you do not, you will likely not be ready until much later."

Hillevi narrowed her eyes. "Twenty? But I am only five!"

"Yes. And if you wish to be the best, each and every movement must come as easily as walking. That will take time."

"Who taught you?"

"Our eldest brother, Anleifr."

"Father spoke of him, sometimes."

"I see."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five – Familial Disdain**

A/N: Sorry everyone! I was having some serious computer troubles and coupled with the fact that I wanted to add to this chapter a bit, it took longer than anticipated! I hope the one shots I posted in the mean time made up for it! And thank you to everyone who reviewed those one-shots - I so appreciate it and I'm glad you enjoyed them! I'm going to keep posting one shots throughout as this story isn't exactly lighthearted, I figure some funny/sweet one-shots will balance things out, so keep an eye out for some short stories from me here and there.

This chapter is entirely from Ilmr's perspective. A bit of filler, but some important points that will reemerge later on are being established.

Lyrics are from Muse's "The Small Print".

 _Take, take all you need  
_ _And I'll compensate your greed  
_ _With broken hearts  
_ _Say, it'll make you insane  
_ _And I'm bending the truth  
_ _You're to blame  
_ _For all the life that you'll lose_

It had been half a year since their arrival in Vanaheim and they were no closer to loss, but no closer to victory. They had slain an unfathomable number of Einherjar, but their enemy was an unending force. More nights than Ilmr could count she and Loki returned to their quarters sore, littered with cuts and abrasions, and bathed in the blood of their enemy.

The creature that had slain Njordr had yet to make an appearance.

Hillevi had warmed to them, had begun to trust them. Loki had been training her to work with her abilities, to develop and hone them. To channel them towards new abilities and foster them. Ilmr had been training her in more martial endeavors. She was a quick study, able to pick up various hand-to-hand combat forms and was eager to spar. She infrequently made the same mistake twice.

Ilmr noted she was hesitant to speak to her other relatives, to linger long in their presence unless it was necessary. It was something Ilmr was infinitely glad of.

And made rather apparent one afternoon on her return journey from practicing with Hillevi when they had come across Tyr.

"Sister!" Tyr irked Ilmr not because of his ill will but his lack of will.

He was ever easygoing, and ever lazy. He had the potential to have been a truly gifted warrior, but saw no purpose in practice when he could direct his troops from the comfort of his chair. He irked Ilmr because he was quick to indebt one to him for a favor disproportionate to what had been asked of him.

"Tyr." Ilmr gave him an easy smile. She did like him for his wit.

"How fare you today? I see you've already been to practice your forms and yet it's not quite the noon hour."

"I could ask after your health – how is it that you're awake before the noon hour?"

He laughed, easy and loose and so much like Anleifr that Ilmr was appalled at how she could have forgotten such a thing. "Fair play, sister." He bent to better see Hillevi's face and, unbeknownst to him, better earn her contempt. "And how do you fare? It must truly be a treat to you to watch Ilmr spar."

"Truly."

Tyr rose slowly, an air of unease about him. "Perhaps she could use more sleep, sister. It does not do to wake children before they're ready; she's still growing yet and it would do her temper well to be better rested."

Ilmr hummed her assent. "I will take your advice to heart, brother. You have spent far longer with her these past few years than I."

"Think nothing of it. She can be mercurial and it has not always been easy to determine her needs."

Ilmr smiled wide. "Children are ever a mystery." She turned her gaze to Hillevi, who was fair glowering at both of them. "Come, Hillevi. Breakfast, and your uncle, are awaiting us in our quarters."

Hillevi was only too quick to turn on her heel and hurry away from Tyr ahead of Ilmr.

Hillevi's face was still morphed into a look of barely-masked distaste when they arrived back at their chambers. Loki looked up from his book at Ilmr and Hillevi's arrival and his lips quirked into a smirk at Hillevi's expression.

"Did Ilmr best you yet again? You're welcome to bring into play our training, you know. She is most adept at sparring with those who possess our talents." He had been doing this, Ilmr noted. Using words such as 'talents' and 'skills' and 'abilities'. Only when he and Ilmr were alone and silenced by his enchantments did he utter words like 'deceit' or 'tricks'.

"We came upon _Tyr_ when we were returning."

Loki raised an eyebrow. Of all of Ilmr's siblings, he disliked Tyr least. "You do not like your uncle?"

"He is lazy. He does not go with you each night into battle. He does not rise until midmorning. He rarely trains." Hillevi's face was screwed up into a look of utter disgust by the time she had finished.

Loki nodded, setting his book aside. "Bathe, and we three can discuss how best to manage his failings."

She seemed only too happy to comply.

Hillevi was far faster than usual, Ilmr realized, when she had barely just changed from her practice kit and saw Hillevi emerging from the bathing room in dry clothing.

Ilmr sat herself next to Loki, one of his hands resting on her knee. Hillevi sat across from them and a soft thud sounded as Fenrir lowered himself to lay down nearby his small charge.

"I agree it is difficult to be surrounded by such incompetence at all times. I know your aunt agrees with me." Loki began. Ilmr merely nodded her assent, interested in where he would take this. "But we must be circumspect. We must never show our hand, merely parts of it. Ilmr will teach you as much when it comes to combat, I in the arts of sorcery, and both of us in the arena of family."

She sat quietly for some time, Hillevi did, watching both Ilmr and Loki before finally speaking. "How many parts are you keeping from me?"

At those words, Loki smiled wide. "I would not keep anything from you, because you are intelligent enough even at your age to know when something is withheld. And we are family, now. It is not just the Einherjar battling with our forces. It is the three of us apart from the rest of your grandfather's line."

Hillevi narrowed her eyes and waited.

"We have met only recently because I left Vanaheim for Asgard. I was exiled first from my family, then from my kingdom. I journeyed to the Realm Eternal looking for a place to belong. I found him. I had never belonged here. It is only because Inghard struck a bargain with me that I am here now." Ilmr supplied.

"What bargain?"

"I was Commander before I left for Asgard. He reinstated me, for this war and the duration of my life, should I live through this. I have been pardoned, no longer in exile, and they welcome Loki and allow us to stay should we wish it at the end of the war. All that in return for leading their forces against this foe."

Hillevi's eyes darted to Loki, dark and calculating. "Are you not welcome in Asgard?"

She did not know. She, somehow, did not _know_. No one had told her. Ilmr kept her features blank, allowing Loki to answer.

"No. At least, not anymore. You see, I was made King, and it was taken from me. I fell into the abyss. The one who pulled me from the Void did so at a price so high I could not pay it, though I tried. I was punished first by the family that had adopted me, and then by he who I had failed. I am welcome very, very few places in the Nine Realms, for my deeds."

A small, strawberry-blonde eyebrow perked in interest. "You are adopted? Like you adopted me?"

"Yes. But younger. As a babe. And those who adopted me did not tell me. That I was who I was, _what_ I was. We will not be making that mistake with you."

"Why are you the God of Lies?"

"I am a skilled liar. The best. And skilled too at detecting lies."

"You are honest with me. And Ilmr."

"Yes. It is just us, now. We three against all. We cannot afford to deceive one another."

She seemed to think over Loki's words for some time, before finally nodding, looking first to Loki, then Ilmr. "I will do it. I will pretend to like them so that we are safe from them."

Loki nodded. "Good. Because they will try to stop you."

Ilmr knew where he was going, but was unsure whether it was right for him to do so, whether it was right of her to think to stop him if she could.

"From what?"

"You are fated to end this war, Hillevi. With the help of myself and Ilmr, you will have the skills to do so. If any of your uncles or aunts were to know, they would try to stop you."

"But I am a child."

"It will be many years before this war ends, Hillevi. Until such time as you are prepared to take to the battlefield, we will hold off the onslaught. Ilmr and I are skilled warriors."

At his words, Hillevi tsked quietly, looking to Ilmr. "Pity your brothers aren't more like you."

Ilmr felt a rueful smile tug at the corners of her mouth. "Your father was. As was Anleifr." Ilmr paused at that. "Which reminds me," she turned then, retrieving a small steel box from the folds of her armor in her armoire. "I would have you learn a lesson Anleifr taught me that you likely have not yet been taught."

Hillevi peered at the box as Ilmr unlocked one end. Before she had even done more than crack the seal, Ilmr felt a wave of nausea overtake her. Hillevi made no motion to back up or indicate that she felt ill. Withdrawing a small chunk of iron wrapped in cloth, Ilmr let the piece get no closer than the layer of cloth between it and her skin.

"What is it?"

Loki's jaw was set, she knew, having seen Ilmr's reaction however muted and had known what she possessed.

"It is iron, Hillevi."

She frowned, small brow pinched. "Oh." She lifted her gaze to Ilmr's then, eyes searching. "What is special about it?"

"You do not feel ill? No nausea, no lightheadedness, nothing?"

Hillevi shook her head. "No. Should I?"

"Elves are susceptible to the effects of iron. As more than half-elven, you should be as susceptible as I am. Its mere presence makes me feel ill. An injury from iron will feel as though a perilous wound. A wound made by iron may kill, in some cases. It will always scar."

Hillevi merely shrugged. "I feel nothing."

Ilmr nodded. "Perhaps that is another part of your gift. Njordr was ever strong and steadfast and less susceptible to iron's effects than the rest of us. It may be that you inherited such resistance." Ilmr wrapped the iron piece and replaced it in the steel box, allowing herself a few moments for the nausea to dissipate before she thought of continuing.

Loki saw fit to interject in those few quiet moments. "And for what reason would you have a piece of iron in your possession? Would you so carelessly keep close that which could harm you?"

He was thinking of the Titan. Of her terror and the therapist and the surgeries.

Ilmr graced him with a placating smile. "Because it is necessary." She held up a hand to him before he could speak again. "Trust me, Loki. There is a need for everything, even that which can harm us."

He cracked his jaw and said nothing.

* * *

He said nothing until they had nearly reached their enemy that evening for battle.

"Tell me: what need would you have for a scrap of iron?"

Ilmr graced him with a humorless smile. He would not like her response, she knew, but she had never been in the business of ensuring he was pleased with all she did.

"I am Commander, Loki. I know more of our plans of attack, of our positions and numbers and weaknesses than any other. If I were to be captured, though it is more likely I would simply be killed- but _if_ I were to be captured, I do not think they would be merciful. After the Titan, I do not know that I would have the resolve I once did."

His hand clamped hard on her arm at that, his words coming harsh through grit teeth. "If I wished to follow a fool, I would never have left Asgard."

Ignoring his feral expression, Ilmr leaned in and pressed a kiss to his lips, though he made no move to return it. "I will have no need of it. It is merely reassurance for my nerves."

There was no time for him to respond as the shrieking of their enemies had drawn close enough and she swept her sword free of its scabbard just as she saw Loki collect several daggers in hand.

* * *

It was that night Ilmr saw for herself the cowardice of Inghard at practice. In truth, he was a skilled warrior. At least, he was skilled when he was not called upon to put action to the prowess he spoke of.

For all that he felled numerous enemies, he took far more injuries than he should have, for one as old as he and as experienced in battle. Tyr might have been a better choice for Commander, in Ilmr's stead. He might have been lazy, but he was fearless, when he deigned to join them in battle. Inghard was all arrogance and puff; in the face of his enemies, he was unsure and full of self-doubt.

Inghard was leading a force of elves alongside the fraction of troops Ilmr had chosen to lead for herself. It was clear that even the elves felt that Inghard was made of more cowardice than his stories belied. For all that he practiced and likely knew on instinct, he misjudged himself again and again. After a time, Ilmr's grim satisfaction at Inghard's every sound born from an injury grew to be an irritating reminder that he was as fit for battle as Hillevi.

Shortly before dawn, Inghard let out a cry far louder and excruciating than the myriad he forced Ilmr to endure that particular evening. It seemed, at a glance, he had earned himself a blade through his side. Not far enough towards his middle to cause any real damage beyond several weeks of healing, but he took the injury as a babe might: once he dispatched of his enemy, he made a spectacle of himself crying out as he tore the blade from his side and making a show of trying to remain upright.

Fortunately, he made several soldiers in his battalion escort him back to the palace. Ilmr was not sure whether she could have endured his whining the entire way back from the battle after dawn without putting him out of his obvious misery.

"Do you think he's dead?" Loki's words came amused and quiet from her right.

"One can only hope. It sounded horrifying."

"How is it that _he_ was named Commander in the stead of any of your other siblings?"

Ilmr sighed, stowing her blade away now that she'd finished cleaning it of blood. "It's hard to say. Likely, he claimed the place because of our birthing order rather than any true skill." The palace seemed much farther away than it really was, no matter how many mornings she trudged back towards it exhausted.

"Pity."

"Pity me, I will need to visit him in the healing rooms for his report."

Loki laughed quiet and low. He was apparently not as exhausted by the night's battle and the thought of sharing a bed with her not-quite-so-tired husband roused her energy and sent a thrill up her spine.

"Hopefully he does not have too much to report." A wicked smile graced Loki's lips. "I will be waiting."

With no more than a raised eyebrow and a smirk of her own, Ilmr made her way to the healing rooms.

Inghard had truly abused his status, at least three healers surrounding him and twice as many attendants assisting the healers.

"Have you made appropriate arrangements, then?" Ilmr placed herself at the foot of his cot.

"What arrangements are those?" His perturbed air did not do as much to dissuade her as he had clearly hoped.

"Your funeral arrangements. One would imagine you are on the brink of death, with so much fuss over such a wound."

Inghard pushed himself into a seated position with a wince. His pride was never well-equipped to manage such goading. "Death is not on the horizon for me as yet, Sister. Much to your dismay, I am sure."

"Then you are hale enough to deliver your daily report."

The flash of fury in her elder brother's eyes was unsurprising and absurd. "Your lack of respect for your elders continues. I cannot say I am surprised. It will cost you someday, Sister."

"Would that I had elders worth respecting." She gave him a serene smile that only served to make him near-quake with his impugned superiority. "And I am still waiting for your report."

"Much the same as every other night these past months. A score dead. General wounded."

"A score? Shameful as it would be, please tell me it is only a score of the Einherjar that your battalion have slain instead of a dozen of your men slain."

Inghard's face shifted into a grimace and he made no reply.

Ilmr laughed. "I will gladly guess, Brother. It will not take particularly long to discover the truth, in any case."

"When it is you here, I will not visit. Rather, I will wish it had been a more fatal wound."

"I don't expect you would visit." She flashed a wide, toothy smile she had borrowed from Loki and Inghard straightened. "And you would not wish such a thing. Were I to endure so grievous a wound it would be _you_ to answer for it. I daresay the Einherjar would seem far more pleasant company than my husband, by the time Loki would be through with you."

Having rendered Inghard rather pale and speechless, Ilmr took her leave of him.

It had not always been so, with her siblings. She remembered being much younger and far closer to her elder brothers. Even if they had only endured her presence, they were far kinder when they had been children.

Her father, she knew, had had no elf-gift, with no elven heritage to his name. But her mother had had the gift, a far subtler gift than most she had ever encountered.

Her mother had never wanted for much, and it was not only because of her status, elven princess that she was. The elf-gift manifested in her mother's persuasiveness. Her mother had agreed with her father: Ilmr was often more troublesome than she was worth and had cost them their eldest –and rather obviously- favored son.

As such, her mother's ill will towards her had slowly and steadily infiltrated her other siblings until there was little but resentment and disdain for her left in them.

Njordr and Tyr did not seem particularly effected. Njordr likely because he had spent an inordinate amount of time and trust on her in war. Tyr was not so easily explained, but he was worth little more than the knowledge of the best places to lounge, it was not usually worth thinking upon.

Instead, she turned her mind towards appointing one of Inghard's men his replacement until her prideful brother was well once more. Ever a hindrance before he was a help, Ilmr hoped it would be a long time indeed before Inghard was able to join them on the field again.

* * *

"What did he have to say for himself?" Loki glanced up from his plate, hair still damp from the bath.

Ilmr gave a wry smile as she shrugged out of her heavier armor. "Little beyond empty threats and prideful declarations."

"Pity the blade did not cut deeper." Hillevi made her presence known without looking up from her book.

"Oh?" Ilmr was too hungry until after bathing to eat and so sat herself at their table.

"Were it up to me he would have perished."

Loki raised an eyebrow but did not spend more than half a moment on looking to Ilmr. "And if it were up to you?"

"I would have ensured he died. It would have looked like an accident."

Ilmr listened as she tucked into her plate.

"How?" Loki was both genuinely curious and encouraging.

At this, Hillevi thought for several long moments. "Were I on the battlefield, I would ensure there were too many foes surrounding him for his troops to reach him in time. If I were allowed now, I would ensure the wound did not heal."

"How?" For Loki's liking, she was still being too vague.

"Mislabeling is easiest, but also easily discovered. More difficult but—" she shook her head. "I'm not good enough for that, yet."

"For what?"

"If I can use my abilities to move objects, then I should be able to use them to disrupt his healing. It is still movement, just…different."

Loki nodded. "Yes. Moving an object across a table is not so different from moving his blood. If you focus and practice enough, you could make it so that he ruptures the delicate veins still healing." He smiled. "Very good, Hillevi."

She beamed at him, before looking to Ilmr, her smile smaller, more serious, but no less pleased with herself. "When I am able, I will make them wish they had never crossed either of us."

Her hands had been scrubbed clean enough, Ilmr decided, and placed a gentle hand on Hillevi's hair in thanks as the girl returned to her meal. "I look forward to it as much as you do, my dear."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six – Impressions and Absences

A/N: I'm so sorry for how long this has taken me to post! In fairness, my computer troubles became computer catastrophes when my laptop died completely. I had managed to save most things, but some needed some serious TLC, and some things I may never be able to recover.

I have a new laptop now and this story was one of those things I had saved (mostly), so I did some re-writing and adding and editing to what I had that hadn't been lost and here we are at chapter six!

 **Pixelerrante** : Hillevi is one of my favorites - she is a lot of creepy, creepy fun, so I hope the larger role she has going forward is as enjoyable for you as it has been for me!

This starts from Ilmrs perspective before shifting to Hillevi's after the double page break. Lyrics in this chapter are from Maroon 5's "Harder to Breathe"

 _Does it kill  
_ _Does it burn  
_ _Is it painful to learn  
_ _That it's me that has all the control_

The first day of disquiet Ilmr had since returning to Vanaheim a year before was the night their enemy did not arrive to the battlefield.

Unsurprisingly, Calder did not see why the absence was cause for concern.

"I wonder whether your years away from the heat of battle have dulled you; we have run our enemy off. It is over." Calder failed to keep his self-satisfied smile to himself.

"It is not _over_ , Brother." Ilmr felt contempt bubbling below the surface and took some small satisfaction in raising her brother's ire by refusing to use his title. "We will need to be vigilant until the night they make their return."

"And where have they gone? Do you have information we do not? I would order its reveal, if so."

"I do not. Merely to say it is not over."

Calder broke out into a wide, if pitying, smile. "Perhaps I was wrong to have Inghard bring you here."

"She does not think it is over because she is right."

It had been strange, at first, to have Loki in the place she had grown, but it was not unwelcome. While her siblings would shrink from her at the right words, the right motions, it was not always so immediate. When it came to Loki, though her siblings usually had a half-biting comment they, invariably, immediately shrank with only a word from him.

"And what makes you so sure?" Calder had never been her most intelligent brother.

Loki graced him with a cruel, cold smile, the likes of which she had not seen since it had been the Titan's, scrawled on innumerable scraps of paper. She suppressed a shiver.

"Mistress Death is the architect of this war and she will not rest until she has what she is after. If you wish it, we will depart immediately; it appears you have no more use for my wife save to find a pastime in gambling with her life instead of your own."

Ilmr suspected Calder had stopped listening after the mention of Death, given his ashen appearance.

"Are we quite finished here, _Highness_?" Ilmr used her sweetest tone and one Calder apparently remembered well, by the straightening of his shoulders that made him appear he was preparing for a blow.

When Calder merely nodded, she took Loki's arm and their leave of her brother.

* * *

"When will they return?" Hillevi asked, chewing thoughtfully and waiting for the reply of her aunt and Loki.

When they had explained why they would not be going to war that night, she had merely nodded and declared that it would give them more time to teach her.

"We do not know. Orders have gone out to our generals regarding daily drills until such time as our enemy resurfaces."

She nodded, quietly considering Ilmr's answer. She was sharp, her brother's daughter, though she was a mere year older than she had been when they first arrived.

Her daughter now, she reminded herself.

It had been something she had discussed with Loki at length, in the first days they spent with her in their care.

 _Loki spoke first after Hillevi had left for her daily instruction. As with all other conversations in her family's home, he made sure no other ears could hear them. "I would be far less apt to instruct her if she were unintelligent enough to trust us immediately."_

 _"We've gained some small portion of her trust, at least, with our willingness to train her. The rest we will have to earn."_

 _He gave her a grim smile. "It will be hard-earned."_

 _In a bittersweet rush, Ilmr was reminded of Frigga and she took several moments to both relish the memory and combat the stab of despair. He was eerily perceptive, but he was ever obtuse when it came to himself; Frigga had been, as ever, correct._

 _"Not so much as you might imagine." Ilmr was not looking forward to this battle, his injured pride that the conversation would earn her._

 _"Oh?"_

 _"Save for her father, she has been left out of her family entirely. And once he was gone she was ignored and overlooked for months. What she seeks is a welcoming place and it is what we can provide her: a safe haven and a warm home. It will take time, but it will not be so difficult, as the way of earning one's trust goes."_

 _As expected, his features contorted. "Is it not? Pray tell, then, how_ does _one provide such a place? I did not have one and if my memory serves, you didn't find yourself with a plethora of open arms."_

 _"And did you not hate how you felt, how they made you feel, in those days? Surely you remember each slight against you. We would be singularly equipped to make her feel welcome, having spent so long looking in from the outside."_

 _"We would attempt to do so but I rather suspect we will only do her the same injustices done to us. We are planning, after all, to use her to end this war if we can once we've trained her to usefulness, are we not?"_

 _"Of course. But we will not fail her so spectacularly, I wouldn't imagine. Not if we are always honest with her."_

 _Loki watched her for several long moments before nodding, a smile on his face. "Then we will make sure the choice is hers without giving her a choice beyond the obligation and affection she feels."_

 _Ilmr nodded. "I leave much of the wording to you, my Silvertongue."_

Since then, they had spent much time using the right words to keep Hillevi close to them. It was not difficult, given the foolhardiness of her siblings.

It was fairly infrequently that she and Loki had to orchestrate an event that would bring Hillevi closer to them. More often than not, her siblings did it for them: ignoring Hillevi, overlooking her, or purposefully brushing her aside so that Ilmr and Loki would have to remind them of her presence, to reprimand them for treating her with indifference at best and cruelty at worst.

She had to remind herself again and again that Hillevi might not have been of either she or Loki, but for all intents and purposes, she was theirs now. It would one day be second-nature and not a mantra she said silently each day.

"When they return, what then?" Hillevi's small, steady voice broke her reverie.

"Then we return to war."

"And I may go, then?" She was so eager to join them. It would be difficult, Ilmr knew, as Hillevi grew, to keep her from battle as long as would likely be necessary. Ilmr had been able to join the ranks of Vanirian warriors in her twenties and she intended the same for Hillevi.

"No." Loki sipped from his wine before continuing. "It is likely you will not yet be ready. Once you are ready, however, you may join us."

Hillevi narrowed her eyes at Loki. "When will I be ready?"

"Not for many years, yet. When you are, we will know. And so will you, I might add."

Hillevi ate silently after that, though not entirely sullenly. She was deep in thought, dark, dark eyes darting after her thoughts across the tabletop.

Ilmr's siblings neither paid Hillevi attention nor thought much of her, save to think she was a burden. It was why, when Hillevi mimicked Ilmr's expressions or Loki's wording, that they made no motion to smile as though it were amusing. None took Hillevi seriously, and so she and Loki had decided they would.

It was also why Ilmr found it necessary to discuss her family, though she was loathe to.

"Hillevi." Ilmr waited until she caught her eye to go on. "Your father was the greatest warrior our kingdom has ever had."

This peaked Hillevi's interest and Ilmr found herself surprised that Hillevi had not known, and surprised at herself for not discerning that her siblings would have told their niece as little as possible.

"Inghard said he was a fool."

"Inghard is so prideful he can scarce get out of the way of his ego. Your father perished while your uncle lived because your uncle _fled._ Your father met his end on the battlefield because he was unafraid of any."

Hillevi nodded.

"Your father was so gifted a warrior that they called him The Warhammer."

Again, Hillevi perked up. "Truly?"

"Truly. You know well enough his gifts, but they made him into the most fearsome warrior our kingdom has ever seen. He was tireless, fearless and endlessly strong. I have seen him take on a score of enemies at once. He felled every last one and had nary a scratch."

"Did you fight alongside him often?"

Ilmr nodded. "We were required at every conflict. He for his prowess on the battlefield, and I for my unsurpassed skill as Commander. Be it conflicts our kingdom were a part of, or conflicts we were lending aid to, we were required at every one. Every battle at which I was present until I left Vanaheim, I saw him fight. I have no doubt that when it is time for you to fight alongside us that you will be equally adept."

"And Inghard?"

Loki leaned forward, breaking a roll in half and holding it to her as he spoke. "When next your see your uncle, you will find him far less inclined to speak in such a way."

With a wide, delighted smile at the thought of Loki's mischief, Hillevi took the offered bread.

* * *

...

* * *

Hillevi's first impression of her father's sister was her absence and subsequent months of the same until one of her uncles tracked down their wayward relative. She had been alone those months, with only her nursemaids as company. The aunts and uncles that were present after her father's death saw her, if they saw her at all, as little more than an afterthought.

Her second impression of her father's sister –Ilmr, she was called- was of an aunt no more interested in her existence than the others; with a strange companion off of whom a mix of feral power, wisdom, and muted rage emanated.

Her third impression of Ilmr was that she and Loki, she had learned this companion's name was, were not the fools the rest of her family were. That perhaps her father had been right to name her Hillevi's guardian.

By the end of the first week, Loki had begun to teach her simple methods to better control and exert those abilities of hers she had told him of. Ilmr had garnered her with a child's practice sword and was teaching her basic forms and movements.

They went into battle each night and returned each day at dawn. Unlike many of her uncle's attempts she had overheard tales of, their battalions did not lose quite as many soldiers. This, Hillevi gathered, was the result of Ilmr's prowess as Commander and Loki's unparalleled abilities.

It was many months before she truly trusted them, but she allowed the appearance of trust long before in order to lead them into any number of traps, which would expose them as the frauds the rest of her family proved to be.

They were earnest in their promises, she found.

Loki took great pleasure in every ability she displayed and he helped her to grow far beyond what she had been capable of before, even at such a young age. He was sure she would be one of the more powerful beings in the Nine Realms.

Ilmr too taught her much and was pleased with her quick progression and dedication to her training. She praised her as consistently as she pushed her.

Hillevi remembered well the day she came to trust Ilmr and Loki implicitly. Thus far, all training had been either in their chambers or in a secluded area of the palace that Ilmr and Loki assured her none frequented.

 _Ilmr decided, this particular day, that it was time to begin taking advantage of the larger arena one of the inner courtyards had been converted into. It was always deserted in the hours just after dawn, most of the soldiers still asleep or just returned from battle. Ilmr had not yet changed from her armor and the streaks of black blood made the training much more real to Hillevi than she suspected it otherwise would have been._

 _It was on their return to their chambers that they were discovered by Orvar. Her uncle, who was far more like her grandfather than his siblings, halted his heavy tread towards the banquet hall to look both she and Ilmr up and down._

" _Calder would not approve of your decisions, sister." His lips curled into a sneered smile. "A habit of yours, I believe."_

 _Ilmr raised her chin and set him with a serene smile. "While it may have been quite some time since you read more than the dinner menu, I believe you will find my name as the one Njordr chose as her heir. Calder has no business in how I choose to raise her."_

 _Ilmr made to take a step away but thought better of it, it seemed, as she turned back. She caught Hillevi's eye and gave her a small smile that gave Hillevi the sensation of being privy to a secret._

" _And, given your…recent inattentions to the arena, someone will need to be here to defend you when the time comes and you are unable to escape."_

 _Had she not been trying to suppress laughter, Hillevi would have had more time to enjoy the outraged expression her rotund uncle had fixed on his features. A hand at her back gently led her around and back to their chambers._

* * *

 _While Ilmr bathed, Hillevi took a meal with Loki and regaled him with the tale of their meeting with Orvar. Loki's chuckle, deep and amused, was cut short by a rap on their door._

 _A servant handed a note to Loki without a word before turning and leaving._

" _I suspect we are being summoned to an audience with my eldest disappointment." Ilmr's voice came from behind them, steam following her out of their bathing chamber._

" _So it would seem." Loki glanced over the note before tossing it aside. "Immediately after we have broken our fast."_

 _Ilmr nodded. "Good. Hillevi, the side entrance to the throne room, just inside the door, has a small alcove in which you can remain undetected to hear the proceedings."_

" _How often did you frequent it when you were my age?"_

" _Every time I was able to without being missed for my lessons. At least once a day."_

" _May I do that?" Hillevi planned to do so regardless, but felt she would not be denied her request._

" _I encourage it. The best way to learn of political intrigue is to experience it. Without hiding in this place, there would be no reason for you to hear any of what you'd need to."_

 _After a last bite of her meal, she set her plate aside and stood. "May I be excused to find my way?"_

 _Ilmr nodded. "Of course. We will be there in a matter of minutes."_

* * *

 _Hillevi found the alcove easily enough and it was of a size such that she would be able to sit unnoticed there for many years as she grew._

" _You requested our presence, brother?" The acoustics in the throne room meant Ilmr's voice carried easily._

" _It has been brought to my attention that you would train Hillevi in the art of war."_

 _There were several moments of silence. "I fail to take your point so I suggest you make it, both Loki and I are rather tired, as you could imagine."_

" _You will no longer train her in the art of war."_

 _Hillev bristled at his decree. Loki's laughter halted her rising emotions._

" _I too fail to see why we are here, my lord. Are you concerned Hillevi may turn out to be much like her aunt? The shame it would be, to have two such warriors in your family. You do have an overabundance."_

 _More silence. When her uncle spoke, his voice near trembled with the effort to remain calm. "She will not be taught. Am I understood?"_

" _No." Hillevi could hear the smile in Ilmr's voice. "You are not. You are refused and unacknowledged."_

" _You will not disobey me in this." Calder's voice rose, furious and cold, to the rafters._

 _The room was entirely still for a short stretch. Loki's cool, calm voice broke the silence. "Then it seems we have no choice." There was a hint of resignation in his tone. "Prepare her, my dear, we depart for Midgard before nightfall."_

 _Hillevi's eyes went wide. She had scarce seen the entirety of her uncle's kingdom and the thought of seeing a different realm entirely was thrilling. She wondered briefly how many mortals were as puzzling and irritating as the Man of Iron._

 _The sound of her uncle sputtering caught her attention._

" _What? No, you –you are not free to leave. Not you, and certainly not with her."_

" _Do you forget, brother?" Ilmr's voice took on a cruel edge. "My reinstatement as Commander, as a member of this kingdom, this family, is dependent upon the outcome of this war. As the war is not yet over, I am not one of your subjects. You have no ability to keep me here and indeed, you seem to need me far, far more than I need you. Hillevi has been remanded to my care and I would not leave her here with the likes of you and our siblings even if it were to escape Death herself."_

 _Silence reigned again._

 _Finally, finally, Hillevi heard a sigh. "Very well." Calder sounded infinitely more tired than he had a handful of minutes before, though no less furious for it. "Anleifr did not heed our father's warnings and it was the death of him. With any amount of luck, so shall the same foolishness be the death of you."_

" _You have never been particularly lucky, brother."_

 _Hillevi could hear the recession of footsteps, and hastened to meet Loki and Ilmr in their chambers._

It had been months since that meeting and Hillevi's training had continued apace; now that their enemy was absent –no matter how mysterious and abrupt- Ilmr and Loki would be present more frequently to train her. It was an opportunity Hillevi was not about to squander.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven – Midgard**

A/N: So sorry, everyone! Even though I have myself a brand-new laptop, things have gotten so busy at the office I've had a serious case of writer's block and a serious case of Jesus-H-let-me-go-home-and-sleep-once-in-a-while.

I've got a chapter longer than the previous ones in this story to make up for the wait! We've done a bit of jumping ahead in the timeline, as that's when things _really_ start to get interesting! One of my all-time-favorite Tony Stark nicknames is in here.

 **pixelerrante:** Compared to Loki and Ilmr, at least, they're certainly inept! As time goes by, though, they start getting a little wiser (at least, a little wise to the fact that _something_ is going on!).

This chapter switches perspectives several times: Ilmr, Loki, Ilmr, Loki, Ilmr. Each shift is, as usual, indicated by a double page break. Lyrics in this chapter are from the Manic Street Preachers' "Mausoleum", (same song this series is named for!)

 _And blind your success inspires  
_ _And analyze, despise and scrutinize  
_ _Never knowing what you hoped for_

For the next four years, there was no sign of Death or her army. It made Ilmr wary and she trained Hillevi as hard as she dared to prepare her as best she could. Each day that passed without sight nor sound of their enemy made Ilmr more uneasy. Only Loki knew of her discomfort.

"Again!"

Ilmr had been drilling Hillevi for a handful of hours. They had begun sparring almost a month previous and while she was as quick to put the forms she had memorized for years to use, she lacked enough finesse that Ilmr had decided she would not see battle, whenever it was that it began again, for another five years.

With a smile, Hillevi inclined her head and began once more. She would see the battlefield no later than eighteen; that much was certain. She was an eager pupil and their serious daughter – Njordr's serious daughter — had taken to both Loki's teachings and Ilmr's with equal fervor and practiced daily for hours.

This would be the first time Ilmr pushed her past exhausted in their training. She was old enough and she had grasp enough of the forms that Hillevi would now need to be challenged.

It was another two hours before Ilmr halted them, giving Hillevi a smile. "Well done indeed." Reaching into her bag, Ilmr produced an apple and purposely tossed it to Hillevi when she wasn't looking. Six hours of training aside, she could not let her guard down; on the battlefield, she would not have the luxury.

Hilelvi caught it. And moments later dropped it with a surprised yelp. Frightened, if Ilmr thought for a moment that Hillevi ever felt afraid of anything.

Ilmr would have been to her in two strides, had Hillevi not kept a distance from her, taking several steps back for each of Ilmr's forward. "Hillevi, what—" she did not need to finish her question.

She could see the answer to it lying between them on the ground, white, desiccated skin hanging loose from the stem. Ilmr carefully plucked it from the ground and inspected it. The fruit had been drained of everything: the juice, the meat of the fruit itself, even the core was gone. It was truly only white, wrinkled skin hanging off a stem.

Ilmr tried again much calmer this time. "Hillevi, what happened?"

She shook her head, loose strawberry waves moving slightly. "I-I-Nothing. I-I caught it. That's all. I didn't – I didn't do anything to it."

"I don't think you did. At least, not intentionally." Ilmr pocketed the item lest any happen upon them. "What were you practicing with Loki?"

"Not – nothing like that. Projections. Conjuring energy into a solid, useable form. Nothing different from what we've been doing for –for the past few months."

Shouldering her rucksack, Ilmr nodded in the general direction of their chambers. "Then let us find him. He'll know what this may be." She did not try to lay a hand on Hillevi, who was utterly spooked and kept a distance between she and Ilmr that was nearly half again Ilmr's reach.

Once they reached their chambers, Ilmr did not need to call out to Loki. Hillevi burst forth with his name not a moment after their antechamber door had closed.

"Loki!" She sounded panicked. Ilmr could not recall a time before in which she had sounded so.

The speed with which Loki was before them made Ilmr think that she was correct: Hillevi had _never_ sounded panicked before.

"What has happened?" His eyes roved over them looking for any sign of injury. When he saw none, he reached for their daughter.

Who shrank away from his touch.

He asked again, this time with more wariness. "What has happened?"

"I-I don't –" Hillevi stopped herself and took a breath before looking to Ilmr. "Show him. Please."

With a nod, Ilmr removed the desiccated fruit from her rucksack and handed it to Loki. "I tossed her a bite to eat after our session today. When she touched it, in mere moments, it looked like this."

He turned it over in his hands several times, gently poking and prodding. After a few moments, he stepped away and retrieved a pear from a bowl on their dining table. He tossed it to Hillevi.

Who caught it and, as before, watched as the same thing happened: it went snow-white and the skin hung off of it, fruit and juice entirely removed.

He nodded. Half a dozen pieces of fruit later and Hillevi caught yet another and this time, blessedly, nothing happened. A relief, as Ilmr watched Hillevi's increasing panic and wasn't sure how she would have been able to calm her without being able to touch her.

Loki ran a hand over Hillevi's hair. "Wash up, my dear. There is nothing to be afraid of."

With no more than a nod, she did.

Ilmr waited until Loki had silenced the space around the two of them to speak. "What do you think?"

He shook his head. "I've never seen the like. I don't know. I'll need to think. What was her mother?"

"Elf-kind. Nothing Njordr or I are not."

Loki nodded. "What was different today? She has been training with you since we arrived half a decade ago. Something has changed."

"We have been sparring for a month or more now. I pushed her today. Harder than I ever have, I think." She hesitated before adding, as though Loki somehow did not already know. "So much time without a sign of our enemy worries me. Now that she is able to spar, I wish to ready her as quickly as possible."

Again, he nodded. Ilmr began unbuckling her training gear as Loki thought in silence.

"Her mother." His words were whispered.

"What?" Ilmr paused as she unbuckled a vambrace.

"Her mother. This _has_ happened before. You remember what your brother said. Her mother was healthy, the death was unexpected."

"What do you mean?" Ilmr felt the hair on the back of her neck begin to stand on end.

"Hillevi has not been under such physical duress for so long since. Her practice with me is tiring, but I have no reason to push her in the way you do. Her body was taking the energy it needed. She—" At Ilmr's motion, he ended the enclosing silence around them.

Moments later, the door to the bathing chamber opened, and Hillevi emerged.

"Are you hungry, dear?" Ilmr watched her cautiously. At least she didn't appear to be on the precipice of a breakdown anymore.

Hillevi shook her head. "No. I don't think I could manage a bite."

Ilmr caught the flicker in Loki's gaze before he spoke. "Take some rest, then. You must be tired."

Hillevi did nod, at that, and made for her chambers.

Once more, Loki created a soundproof barrier around the two of them when the door shut. "She is not hungry. And I don't think she has reason to be. I think she absorbed all of the sustenance she needed."

"I wonder what else she can absorb."

Loki gave her a wicked smile. "There's one way to find out. And it's beneficial for children to experience other cultures."

Ilmr raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Stark and Banner will be able to assist better than any tool we possess here."

"I will alert Calder to our absence. A week should be sufficient, don't you think?"

Loki nodded. "Perfect."

* * *

...

* * *

Hillevi was delighted at the thought of traveling to another realm and Loki supposed she had spent the better part of the morning packing and re-packing her rucksack as she waited for he and Ilmr to be ready.

From what Ilmr had told him, it sounded as though Calder was perfectly livid that they were leaving, even for a short time. It also sounded as though Ilmr had let him know she was not asking, and that there was nothing he could do to stop them from leaving. For someone who paraded his assurance that the deadly threat had long since passed, Calder seemed rather nervous their foe would resurface once Ilmr and Loki left.

From their place in the courtyard, Loki glanced upward, though once he had dropped the veil covering himself, Ilmr, and Hillevi, he knew it was not necessary. "Heimdall, I would request your assistance to Midgard."

The air around them became to shimmer. "Take my hand, Hillevi." Ilmr's voice was calm beside him.

She did just as the Bifrost activated and moments later, surrounded by the girlish giggles of Hillevi's delight, they found themselves standing on the helicopter pad of Stark's tower.

Stark himself was in the room just beyond the glass and judging by the long pour from the decanter in his hand, he was not pleased with their arrival. It mattered not.

The Man of Iron met them as they approached the door. "Really? He couldn't have dropped you off somewhere else? You _had_ to ruin my helipad? Screw you guys." He took a long sip of his drink before smiling at Hillevi. "Hey kiddo. You're growing up quick."

"Are our chambers still functional?" Ilmr interjected before Stark truly began to monologue.

"What? Yeah. Didn't see the point in tearing them down once they were renovated."

"Perfect." Ilmr strode past Stark, reaching a hand backwards towards Hillevi, who shouldered her bag, gave Stark an once-over, and caught up to her aunt.

"Is the creepy something she's going to grow out of like most kids do awkwardness, or is that an inherited thing?" Stark had waited, at least, until the elevator doors closed behind Ilmr and Hillevi to speak.

"Just because she is far more canny than you, Stark, does not make her 'creepy'." Loki helped himself to Stark's bar as he spoke.

"Did you get kicked out of her parent's house too? Or did you kill…Death? Is that still going on? Why are you here?"

Loki gave a humorless laugh. "It's good to see you too. We are here for Hillevi. We need your assistance. Is Banner here? He too would be useful."

"You want me to inspect the creepy kid? I don't know. I have a strict no-poking-and-prodding-the-kids-who-should-be-on-a-watch-list policy. Sorry."

Loki narrowed his eyes. "If you do not assist us, Death _may_ win, and then there will be _no_ S.H.I.E.L.D. treaty that can save you from me."

" _Fine_. What's going on?"

Loki fished a desiccated fruit from his pack and tossed it to Stark as he explained what had happened.

As he listened, the Man of Iron turned the item around again and again. He finally placed it on a glass coffee table before speaking. "J.A.R.V.I.S., analyze this for me. What do you see?"

It took the AI a few moments as it did as Stark requested. "Nothing, sir. There—"

"Come on, J. There has to be—"

"—I'm sorry to interrupt, sir. But I mean beyond what you see, the skin and the stem, Mr. Laufeyson is correct, there is nothing. No seeds or juice or fruit. It is entirely hollow. My apologies."

Stark rounded on Loki. "How can I test this? What do you expect I can do?"

"We need a place to practice this phenom away from the prying eyes of her extended family. We need to see what else she can perform this upon."

Loki needed to say no more, it seemed. "No. Oh, no. You're not letting her do _that_ to my machinery! Absolutely not. No. Not once."

" _Stark_. Think clearly. This ability could be what ends the war. We need to know how it happens, why it happens, in order to allow her to harness it at will. To make it work for her –and us."

A disgusted sound left Stark's lips. "You are seriously two – _three_ of the most impossible people. _Fine_. I will rig something up she can't destroy _too_ thoroughly. Something contained. I can't have her take out half of New York or I'll hear about it."

Loki smiled. "Beautiful." He made his way toward the elevator. "We will see you on the morrow."

* * *

...

* * *

While Loki spoke with Tony Stark, Ilmr took Hillevi and their hounds down to their former chambers, six floors below.

Hillevi regarded the spaces with the same quiet observation she did all things. "Will Mr. Stark discover what happened?"

Ilmr set their bags on one of couches in their living room area. Fenrir and Vidar lounged nearby, having sniffed and reacquainted themselves with their quarters in Midgard.

"Between he and Loki, he will be able to help, certainly. While we wait, would you prefer to practice? We will likely not have another uninterrupted period of time like this again."

The dark, discerning eyes met Ilmr's own before nodding. "Please."

Ilmr could tell by her voice alone she was nervous, if masking it well for a child of her age. And so she nodded, leading Hillevi into the elevators and down to the training rooms.

There were few people there, most of them likely mid-shift somewhere in Stark Tower. Of those present, a few recognized Ilmr and she inclined her head slightly. The rest watched with curiosity.

She had only ever trained Hillevi in private and Ilmr could sense her mild unease at interested eyes, even if she kept her head high and her small shoulders straight.

"They do not exist, Hillevi." Ilmr's lips curled into a slight smile. "And even if you cannot remember that, remember that mortals are so weak, should one approach you, you would likely be able to throw him against the far wall with ease."

At that, Hillevi giggled. And took several steps back to set herself before nodding to Ilmr that she was ready.

She was becoming skilled with a blade, but she was far more adept at hand-to-hand combat. She was all willowy grace and calculated movements. Her skill with a blade would come along.

Though a novice, still Ilmr noted the watchful gazes of those in the practice room. Hillevi was likely as skilled as they, given her extensive training the past five years.

Ilmr halted Hillevi a quarter of an hour after they began. "Would you like to spar with someone else?"

Hillevi nodded slowly, eyes wide with delight. "Yes."

Turning, Ilmr scanned the room and selected a man she had known and trained during her previous stay in Stark Tower. "Colin."

He remembered enough that at his name alone he approached.

"You will spar with my daughter."

The man startled. "What? No, I – she –I don't want to hurt her."

Ilmr smiled. "Did you not witness what she can do? You cannot hurt her." Ilmr turned to Hillevi for emphasis. "Remember, he is of Midgard and so mortal. Have a care not to injure him too grievously."

Reluctantly, Colin set himself after watching Hillevi do so. At Ilmr's indication, the man advanced, aiming to strike a gentle blow to Hillevi's side.

Ilmr was proud to see Hillevi's affront at such a soft strike and with an easy block, she ducked inside his guard and struck him with quick, sharp jabs to his jaw and ribs before sliding back out of his guard and reach.

Colin groaned. Hillevi smiled. Ilmr felt the familiar pull that meant Loki was present. It was strongest from the doorway behind Hillevi though she could not see him. He was likely wrapped in enchanted silence and invisibility.

With a short nod, Colin tried again, this time without any of the gentle leeway he had first struck with. With several rapid strikes, he was close enough and with a feigned jab, quickly dropped and swept Hillevi's feet out from under her.

She loosed a surprised sound, but turned the fall into a handstand, using her legs to both kick Colin in the stomach and throw her weight back and right herself.

As he stumbled away, Hillevi advanced, landing three small strikes; two others were blocked. Quickly, so very, very quickly, Hillevi blocked a jab but instead of getting inside his guard, she swept outward and behind, arms locking around Colin's middle and throwing him behind her. As he landed she turned and locked his head and arms with her limbs and stilled completely.

Though Colin struggled, clearly with all of his strength, he could not free himself.

"Give." He sighed.

Hillevi released him.

"Well done, my dear." Loki dropped his enchantment as he spoke and materialized among the onlookers and though his face was a smooth mask, his tone was proud and pleased.

The others in the room startled and took several hasty steps away. Hillevi untangled herself and hurried to face him with a delighted greeting of his name. Which seemed to unnerve the onlookers further.

"How many have you bested?"

"Just the one."

Loki nodded, glancing away from her and around the room at the dozen men and women looking on. "Tomorrow is Saturday. I expect each of you to arrive here by ten o'clock."

Ilmr noted several mouths twitch, but none so brave as to outright scowl. All nodded.

"Good. You may go."

It was not until the room had emptied that a sultry voice came from the far door. "I'll spar with her."

Banner was not the only one to call Stark Tower home, it seemed. Ilmr inclined her head. "Hillevi, this is Natasha Romanov –the Black Widow. And likely the only mortal who could best you."

Natasha smiled briefly, setting aside her water and a towel before approaching. She motioned to Hillevi, who stepped forward and set herself.

At her nod, they began. Hillevi had been practicing for several years, and though stronger, she was eventually bested by the Black Widow.

Hillevi accepted Natasha's hand and rose from the ground. "You are as good as my mother."

"I've been training since I was your age, maybe a little younger. You did well. And you'll keep getting better."

Hillevi smiled at that. Aside from Loki and Ilmr, she did not receive praise from any and she drank it in.

"I would request your presence in our quarters when you have finished your training."

Natasha nodded. "And Ilmr? I want to spar with you, before you leave Earth again."

Ilmr nodded, only too happy to oblige. "It would be my pleasure."

* * *

It was two hours later when JARVIS alerted her to the Black Widow's impending arrival.

If she was wary of their hounds, she gave no indication, seating herself gracefully in an armchair.

"We didn't expect to see you back."

"We didn't expect to be back. It is only for a short time, however."

"Oh?"

"We will return to Vanaheim by week's end." She waited only a moment before asking. "What has happened to your S.H.I.E.L.D.?" She knew the 'we' Natasha had mentioned was not inclusive of her former organization.

"A year, maybe two, after you left, a terrorist organization was discovered hiding in the ranks of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s agents. How did you know?"

"Many of the faces in Stark's training room today were not members of his personal security team. And none of them would have known Loki's face so well after so long." Ilmr waited a few moments before continuing. "And what of your compatriot? I did not see him today, was he—"

"—One of them? No."

Ilmr gave her a small smile. "Is he alive? I would imagine ousting such a group from within your organization would cost a large number of lives."

"Clint's alive. He's on a mission now, but he's due back in about two weeks." The Black Widow gave a wry smile. "He'll be sorry he missed you."

Ilmr laughed. "I imagine he's sorry every time he misses Loki, with an arrow or without." Ilmr held up a glass decanter full of amber liquid. Natasha nodded.

Natasha let out a quiet laugh and did not dispute Ilmr's words. "So why come back?"

Ilmr liked the Black Widow; she admired her prowess in battle and her canny nature. She did not trust her. "We have need of Tony Stark's abilities."

"He said you were fighting Death. He made it sound like a living thing."

"Because it is." Ilmr sipped her drink. "Mistress Death, Hel herself, is the regent of Helheim."

"So that myth is true." Natasha swirled her drink before enjoying a sizeable gulp. "Huh."

"Very much so. She rules over those dead that do not make the journey to Valhalla. Thanos was obsessed with her and for it, Loki sent him to her."

"I heard he also retrieved you from her …realm."

"Also true. Though, I do not doubt your skepticism. Tony Stark has a knack for grand storytelling."

"You could say that." She sat back, surveying the space and looking over Fenrir and Vidar. "Your daughter fights well."

"She does. She is still young, but she will be better than either Loki or myself, when she knows all we have to teach her."

"So you made a child to make a weapon." Another swallow of richly colored liquor, followed by a small smile. "I can't say I'm surprised."

"We will make a Commander so talented we will never have to fear her demise on the battlefield."

"So why send her to war?"

It was Ilmr's turn to smile, then. "You would know better than most, Lady Natasha: some things are chosen for us. We would see her trained, not tortured."

The Black Widow had outwitted Loki, Ilmr knew from Thor's account of Loki's madness. She had clearly anticipated gathering information from Ilmr as well. She had not been expecting, apparently, utter calm and a parry.

"Is that how you see it?"

"I do not imagine there are many things that would make us see it similarly, unfortunately."

"No, I suppose you're right." Natasha finished her drink, setting the glass down carefully before rising. "I'll be free again, two days from now."

"Then that is when we shall spar. Send word, when you're ready."

With no more than a small smile and a nod, the Black Widow departed.

* * *

...

* * *

"Sir, Mr. Stark and Mr. Banner request the presence of your family in the lab. Shall I show you the way?"

Hillevi was still adjusting to JARVIS, Loki noted, as she still startled slightly whenever she heard the AI's voice.

"No, JARVIS. I remember well enough. We will be there shortly."

When they arrived, Stark did not look up from his glass screen. Banner did and shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other.

"Hi." Quiet and hesitant as ever. Loki held no illusions that he was not making a concentrated effort to control the beast despite that.

"Doctor Banner, hello." Ilmr smiled her greeting. She had a fondness for the doctor, given the care with which he treated her when they had last been in the realm.

"I heard your daughter needed our help. I have to admit, it seems like a…strange problem."

Ilmr nodded. "It is. We need to be able to recreate the incident so that we may better understand it and she may better control it."

Banner sat at a nearby stool, gesturing for Hillevi to take the empty one nearby. She settled on the chair without hesitation and though Banner reached towards her, he immediately pulled back.

"May I?"

Loki could not deny his appreciation for the creature's care with Hillevi and dedication to speaking to her rather than at her.

She nodded.

He took her pulse, listened to her heart and startled when he moved to take a closer look at her face. He hesitated only a moment before gently taking her face in hand and peering at her eyes.

"What did it feel like, just before it happened?"

"I was tired. I felt like I might faint if I had to continue without a short rest."

He nodded. "And while it happened?"

At this, she shook her head. "I didn't feel anything, the first time. By the third, I could sense…something." Hillevi looked to Loki then. "It reminds me of focusing on my gift, that hum and warmth."

Banner sat back. "We will need to make you tired again, unfortunately. Tony and I have rigged up a self-contained system that, once you're exhausted, you'll attempt to drain." He pointed with his glasses towards a free-standing machine off to one side. "You'll grip the handle on it and we'll see if you're able to drain it."

"Of what?"

"Its energy. It's a big battery."

"We know you can do it to food." Stark cut in. "We need to see what else you can effect. And we'll get to see if it's always the same result." He grinned.

Hillevi nodded, sliding from the stool with practiced grace. "Alright." She looked to Ilmr. "Should we practice, then?"

Ilmr nodded. "Yes. We'll come back in several hours' time. I'll alert JARVIS when we're on our way." She gave Hillevi a small smile. "We'll begin with an extended warm up."

Hillevi sighed and Loki contained a grin as he watched them go; for all that she was dedicated to her training, Hillevi disliked running.

"What's with her eyes?" Banner, who had always had more sense than Stark, had waited until it was likely the elevator had transported Ilmr and Hillevi several floors.

"I do not know what you mean."

"Bullshit." Stark threw Loki a look.

"Her eyes have looked so since we adopted her several years ago."

"And you have no idea why they look like that? You didn't think to ask anyone why she has no iris?"

"She has an iris, Banner. It happens to be the same color as her pupil."

"I don't buy it. Bruce, what _else_ did you notice about her freaky face?"

Banner had the sense to roll his eyes. "Loki, there's something not quite right with her eyes. They don't reflect…anything. What is that?"

Loki had no answer for them but would give no such indication. He merely smiled.

"Fine, you crazy bastard. Big, green, and angry will find out for us."

"Best of luck, gentlemen."

* * *

It was nearly seven hours later when JARVIS instructed him back to the lab. Upon arrival, not only was Hillevi clearly exhausted and drawn, Ilmr too looked rather tired and her clothes were soaked with sweat.

With Banner directing, Hillevi walked, hazy-eyed, over to the contraption and grasped the handle he indicated. It was a simple machine, looking to be little more than a lamp. Loki was unsure of the power the machine held, but within seconds of coming in contact with Hillevi's skin, the light flickered and died. No amount of tinkering would turn the light back on.

"Damn. See, this is why I made something isolated."

"Stark." Ilmr's single-word warning was enough, it seemed, and the Man of Iron did not speak again.

"How do you feel?" Banner had been recording something on a pad of paper.

"Starving. I'm no longer tired, though."

Loki approached and reached to tilt her head towards him.

She jerked away before he could make contact.

"No." Her eyes were sharp, the glassy film gone. She looked to Banner. "Give me something to eat."

Glancing around, the creature's eyes finally settled on the Man of Iron. "Tony."

"What?"

"Snacks. Now. I know you have them in here."

" _Fine_." Stark tossed an orange to Hillevi.

As Loki suspected, it was a white, limp skin in moments.

Stark sighed. "JARVIS, get a fruit basket down here, will you? Fast."

If Loki was not mistaken, it seemed to him as though Hillevi was nearly vibrating.

"Focus, my dear." Ilmr's tone was soothing.

With a deep breath, Hillevi stilled herself.

It was not until half of the food sent down was desiccated that she no longer drained what she touched. Ilmr moved to smooth her hair and though the movement was too slight for Banner or Stark to catch, Loki saw her relax every so slightly.

"I want to do that again, but this time I want to hook you up to some monitors." Stark's voice was slightly muffled by the hand he was leaning against as he peered at Hillevi.

"That'll drain the machine, Tony."

"I don't think it matters. We can read all the data we need before she does. J, call Saint Vincent's. Tell them I'm coming by tomorrow and I want to use some of their equipment, and remember to thank them for their cooperation."

"Of course, sir."

It appeared even years after Loki's assistance to the mortals there had ended, Stark still had them indebted to him.

"Oh. And let them know I'll replace everything we break. Tell them to order new…" Stark looked to Banner, who sighed.

"JARVIS, they'll need new EKG and EEG machines, and some infrared finger cuffs."

"Of course, Doctor Banner."

"And what will these things do?" Ilmr's voice was even. Loki was not sure he would have sounded particularly calm. Given the result of the most recent experiment, he was not so sure what these new devices would do, but he nonetheless felt the need to press on. If Hillevi were to understand and control this gift, then trials would be necessary.

"The EKG will measure her heart's electrical activity, and the EEG will measure her brain's electrical activity. The finger cuffs will measure the amount of oxygen in her blood."

"And this will tell you what, exactly?"

Stark finally moved from his place behind his screen, turning it as he went. "The light was a power source. She drained it immediately. It acted like a battery. So did the fruit." He pointed to the screen, where several intricate graphs were displayed. "Everything has a resonant frequency. Everything. She's taking everything's potential energy and damping it to the point that its vibration becomes zero. She's turning these frequencies into energy she can absorb. It's just a question of _how_. What's _her_ resonant frequency? Does she have one?"

"Tony, can you even be sure that's what's going on? We've done one experiment."

"It's me. Of course I'm sure. Bruce, this," he picked up his phone, "And her do the _same thing_ to a power source. She's just doing it in a different way." He wagged his finger at Hillevi. "We need Foster."

"No." Loki's tone was sharp and it halted Stark in his tracks.

"Listen, Oliver Twist, I need her. No one knows what she does about your kind of special. You can't keep her out of the tree house just because she's your brother's girlfriend."

"I do not want her here. Find another way."

"Thor doesn't know about her, does he?" Banner ventured, darting his eyes to Hillevi.

"No. And I would not expose her to Thor or his bumbling fool of a father unless I had to."

"Seriously, when you were living here you totally should have talked to Janet."

Loki made a disgusted sound. "When will we reconvene tomorrow?"

Stark narrowed his eyes in a way that made Loki think if Tony were less terrified of him, he'd not have allowed the subject change.

"Ten."

With a nod, Loki turned, gave both Ilmr and Hillevi a glance, and made for the elevator and their floor.

* * *

...

* * *

The morning had been difficult. The hospital had agreed to Stark's terms, provided his "contact", as they called Loki, would spend the day healing. Loki hesitated only briefly before agreeing.

At ten, Banner, with the help of Stark, placed a variety of sensors and prosthesis on Hillevi's chest, head, and hands. Loki had arrived shortly after the process began and he was a silent, foreboding presence by the door.

Ilmr stood with Hillevi, who was calm and remained very still.

"Okay, kid, hop on the treadmill." Tony stepped back from her after attaching the last sensor.

At Ilmr's nod, she did, and waited while Tony made notes on the data that came in from the machines. Once he had several minutes of information, he started the treadmill.

"We will be several hours." Ilmr began to jog in place beside Hillevi. It seemed to relax her, to have a running partner.

"We're not going anywhere, are you kidding? This is going to be my least expensive experiment and probably the most interesting. I'm sticking around the whole time."

"And probably your least damaging." Bruce smiled from behind one machine.

"Look who's talking, Harlem Shake."

"How long will it be until your numbers make sense to you?" Loki's ire came dark and condescending.

"It depends." Ilmr had always liked Bruce, and she knew it irked Loki that she did. "Once we look at these, we're probably going to have to compare them."

"To what?" Hillevi's voice, light and interested, did not sound as though she were running.

"We're going to see what _else_ out there might do what you do. If we can find something, maybe we can find a way to help you control or contain what you do. Or redirect it. Maybe." Bruce gave a tight smile. "If not, well, at least you know what brings it on."

Hillevi nodded, and ran faster.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight – (Im)Patience**

A/N: Sorry for the super long delay on this one, everyone! I've lost the love of this one a little bit and it's sort of a struggle to keep on with it at the moment, but I am trying to power through! I'd love to have the next chapter up sooner than this one went up, but I can't say for sure.

This chapter begins from Hillevi's perspective and after the double page break, switches to Ilmr's perspective for the remainder of the chapter. Lyrics are from Lorde's "Glory and Gore".

 _We're slipping off the course that we prepared  
_ _But in all chaos, there is calculation  
_ _We gladiate but I guess we're really fighting ourselves  
_ _Roughing up our minds so we're ready when the kill time comes_

Loki had been teaching Hillevi to hone her Elf-gift, exercising it like a muscle. Ilmr had been training her in the art of war.

And, Hillevi realized, Ilmr had been teaching her patience.

The first hour had not been particularly bothersome. She spent an hour or two each day in Vanaheim running for her own sake and to exercise whichever hound had not gone to war that day.

But the third hour, the fifth, the _seventh_ : she was bored near tears.

Or, rather, she would have been, but she had been so focused it was only Loki's appearance that jerked her from her meditation on the cracked paint on the wall before her.

That was when she realized it had been seven hours already. That Stark was fiddling with something on his tablet and Doctor Banner was dozing lightly at the makeshift workstation. Ilmr, for her part, had stopped jogging at some point Hillevi could not remember and was moving slowly and steadily through a variety of forms.

The only response Hillevi gave to Loki's single, raised eyebrow was a slight twist of her lips before flicking her gaze back to the crack in the wall; focusing again on the beat of her heart in her ears, the steady sound of Ilmr's breathing.

It was several hours more before Hillevi drained the machines connected to her. Tony and Bruce took one look at the information gathered and claimed it would be several days before they had any real results.

Loki set his features in stone and spoke only to Ilmr or Hillevi. Ilmr, Hillevi could tell, was anxious to know what the Midgardians had found. She was sure of foot and purpose and voice. Were it not for the hand she smoothed over Hillevi's hair as they departed, she would not have known the extent of her mother's anxiety. Ilmr, for all of her attention and determined _pushing_ since her arrival in Hillevi's life, was not tactile. Hillevi, for her part, was fair itching to know.

* * *

...

* * *

Ilmr had spent a good amount of her time teaching Hillevi the mechanics of battle and patience concurrently, though she suspected one was a much more unconscious education than the other. As such, she was nearly as frustrated with her own impatience as she was with how long Stark was taking to analyze what information they'd eeked out of their experiment the day before.

And so, on the second day of waiting, Ilmr had JARVIS contact the Black Widow, and met her in the gym several floors below. It would be enough to distract Hillevi for several hours. Ilmr did not think on how much good it would do her own mind.

Save for the three of them, the space was empty.

"Lady Romanoff." Ilmr inclined her head.

"Ilmr." She gave Hillevi a glance. "I heard it went well the other day."

Hillevi sat herself off to one side and nodded. "Though the Man of Iron talks too much."

A small smile quirked Natasha's lips. "You'll be very good when you're older."

"Would that I could trust you more, I would have her learn more of the art of espionage from you."

Natasha bowed her head, indicating that Ilmr should advance. "I think you're teaching her well enough."

Ilmr advanced with a cross jab and swift elbow combination. Natasha caught one and dodged the other, if only just, retaliating by sweeping Ilmr's legs out from under her. She was unable to set Ilmr off-balance by much; Ilmr hastened into a handspring and caught Natasha's next blow with her knees, landing a kick to the Black Widow's stomach while throwing herself upright again.

Both danced backwards, sizing the other up.

"Is Loki still a bag of cats?" Natasha smirked, stepping in closer with each circle they made of one another.

"Does Agent Barton still feel as though his mind were not his own?" Ilmr, too, stepped in closer each time.

Natasha's eyes narrowed before making a running leap and ending up, through a series of swift movements, on Ilmr's back and wrestling rather adroitly to close off her air supply with her thighs.

Ilmr allowed it, just long enough that Natasha thought she would gain the upper hand. Throwing herself into a somersault, Ilmr broke free and simultaneously sent Natasha tumbling. Hurrying after her and bearing down with a vicious axe kick, Ilmr barely missed the temple of Midgard's warrior woman.

With a quick nip-up, Natasha was on two feet again and advancing with a number of short, fast, kicks and punches; some of which Ilmr deflected, some of which she did not.

When they broke apart to reset themselves and circle one another, both were breathing light and sporting a myriad of small cuts. Some of Natasha's were bleeding. Thanks to Loki's ring, none of Ilmr's were anything more than drying blood on healed skin.

For an hour, they continued on in the same manner, one gaining ground where the other miscalculated. Finally, the Black Widow held up a hand. Ilmr gladly gave her a moment to rest, both of their chests heaving in an effort to breathe.

"Draw?" The Black Widow's voice was breathy.

Ilmr nodded. "Draw."

Natasha straightened, extending a hand. "I wish you were around more. I could use a good sparring partner more than you'd imagine."

Ilmr grinned. "I've seen Stark's hires. I can imagine."

With a bark of laughter, the Black Widow reached for her towel and carefully patted her face dry. "If I don't see you again, thanks."

"The pleasure was mine, Lady Romanoff. Since I fought alongside you in New York I have much wished to spar with you."

"Same." Natasha inclined her head.

With no more than a nod, Ilmr turned to Hillevi, and made her way towards the elevator.

Only when the doors closed did Ilmr speak. "Well?"

"She thinks as many steps ahead as you do. She relies more on her skill as a strategist than her physical strength."

"She is to Midgard what the Lady Sif is to Asgard, though they may not name her as such here."

"And what you are to Vanaheim?" Hillevi perked an eyebrow.

"And what _you_ will be to Vanaheim."

* * *

Loki was not alone when they arrived back in their quarters. Both the Man of Iron and Doctor Banner were present. Ilmr was no longer in a hurry to bathe.

"What news?"

Hillevi sat herself against Fenrir, who in return curled himself around her with a sound like low thunder; he delighted in his small charge and anywhere he was allowed with her, he went.

"If those machines had been plugged into the wall like they're supposed to be, she could have kept running until she had to stop for food. They only stopped working when she finally drained them of their battery power. Any little bit of energy she needed, she took from the equipment." Tony wagged a finger at Hillevi in a way that was meant to be playful. "You're a real life Energizer Bunny."

Hillevi raised an eyebrow. Ilmr also did not understand the reference.

"What Tony means is that you should be careful, we know you can do this to electronics and to food."

Loki fixed his gaze Banner. "And?"

Bruce shrugged, and continued. "Given that living things also have electrical output and quantifiable energy, you should be careful you don't inadvertently take too much of someone else's from them when you need it."

Tony sighed. "This would be way easier if we could get Professor X down here. Seriously. He would have way more information and knowledge. Or, even better, Foster. _Too bad someone wants to be super secretive._ "

"Stark, if you're implying that you are _not_ the genius for the task, please be forthcoming." The smile on Loki's face was nothing sort of smug satisfaction.

Tony set his jaw, glared at Loki, and quieted.

"We will practice once we're home so that you can better control it."

That was, apparently, enough to goad Stark. "No. See, you –everything has a natural frequency. –I thought I explained this. Didn't I explain this? -Doesn't matter. She's able to tap into that frequency and damp it down to zero. So unless she's totally rested or has a full stomach or… _whatever_ , she can take from anyone. Anything. You can't control it. It's—"

Hillevi was concentrating on an outward appearance of calm, eyes far too interested in the joint of the supporting wall and the breakfast bar. Loki's fingers twitched where he stood and Ilmr was sure he would crack a tooth any moment.

Ilmr gave Hillevi a reassuring glance Ilmr knew she didn't see and cut Stark off softly but firmly enough that he stopped speaking immediately. "—We will practice more once we're back in Vanaheim so that you are better able to sense the smallest changes."

Hillevi blinked but nodded, seemingly glad to have sensible counsel from both Banner and Ilmr, given that Loki and Stark were intent on trying to vex the other to perishing before the week was over.

* * *

Though they had just returned, Ilmr ushered Hillevi back into the elevator to the gym and forced her through three hours of practice before allowing her to leave. Though Hillevi was exhausted for it, Ilmr took pride in the fact that Hillevi was too exhausted to be fretful any longer.

By the time Hillevi had bathed and joined Ilmr in their living quarters to read, JARVIS announced Pepper Potts' imminent arrival.

She came bearing with her usual effortless grace, an invitation to the shops Ilmr recalled enjoying so much when she had last been in Midgard, and the promise of local fare.

Ilmr would never let it never be said Tony Stark did not know how to extend an olive branch.

Ilmr would also never let it be said that he possessed discretion, as he made no small amount of noise over the cost and ridiculousness of their purchases and the suspension of belief necessary to account for Hillevi's size versus the amount she was able to eat on their, to use Pepper's phrasing, _Girls Day_.

Loki had merely smiled, and declared that they were leaving at dawn.

* * *

When they returned to Vanaheim, it appeared that war had as well. Settling back into their quarters, Ilmr spent her time with Loki preparing for battle that evening and Hillevi's tutor was called after they took a midday meal together.

"When may I join you?" It was a question Hillevi asked with ever-increasing frequency.

"When you are ready." Loki dismissed; too busy pouring over the most recent, if lacking, reports.

" _When_ will that be?" Hillevi poked sullenly at her meal.

"You have an important place in this war, Hillevi. Loki has told you as much. If you are to take your rightful place, you must be appropriately trained. This includes, among a number of other things, being able to bide one's time."

"It isn't a skill _he_ seems as familiar with as he might be."

Ilmr had to admit, she appreciated Hillevi's willingness to push boundaries as much as her dedication to her training. It was fortunate Ilmr was so well-versed in wearing a stern mask.

Loki raised his head slowly from his papers and leaned forward towards Hillevi. "And it has cost me dearly. You will not make my mistakes." His mouth curled into a sly, sweet smile. "And Ilmr is far more familiar with disobedience and impatience than I."

Hillevi regarded Ilmr with a look of suspicion and disbelief. To Hilevi's credit, Ilmr was far more serious than she had been in years past. She wanted to blame much of it on her siblings but she could not deny the unease that had settled in her gut ever since Inghard had walked into the Tower and back into her life. Most of her solemnity came from the looming spectre of Mistress Death and her army.

"I had many opportunities in my father's court and abroad to stir up trouble and I did so with abandon."

Hillevi merely nodded, clearly not sure if it was true, but happy to accept it as truth until Ilmr felt it the appropriate time to correct the notion.

Ilmr could not deny that it had seemed much easier to return to the heat of battle from within the routine of Stark Tower, but she had nonetheless known what awaited her. She was no stranger to battle and she had endured more than most, in her time.

What she had not counted on were the unexpected and unwelcome memories of rent flesh and the stench of death and blood and ragged, raw screaming.

Ilmr suspected that Loki was reminded of his own, similar experiences. She did not mention her memories to Loki, just as she suspected he didn't share his own with her. It had been enough to live it and to see what remained of the other after it was over.

As they left Hillevi behind for the battlefield that evening, Ilmr wondered briefly how long the war would last this time before their adversaries disappeared into thin air again. How long it would be before one of them made a fatal error, and whether it would be before or after Hillevi was of age to raise a weapon alongside them.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine – Meeting Death

A/N: Oh my gosh I'm so sorry for how long this has taken me to update. As I mentioned I've fallen a little out of love with it and had some other projects and life get in the way. With the teases of Ragnarok we've been getting I'm starting to get back into the groove of this story. So, thank you to everyone that's been patient with me!

This chapter is much darker than the ones before and really gives you a look into how far Loki and Ilmr are willing to go to get what they want. Hillevi is a character I've really enjoyed creating and writing and she's very strong-willed and dark-hearted.

This chapter starts from Hillevi's perspective. After the first double break, it switches to Ilmr's perspective and, after the last double break, switches to Loki's perspective for the remainder of the chapter.

Lyrics are from the Manic Street Preachers' "Archives of Pain".

 _Don't be ashamed to slaughter  
_ _The centre of humanity is cruelty  
_ _There is never redemption_

SIX YEARS LATER

Loki and Ilmr had left not an hour previously, farewells and promises of morning in their wake. She despised their leaving because she despised her other aunts and uncles.

It would be a mere handful of years until she would be able to join Ilmr and Loki on the battlefield, and it was a day she longed for. Fifteen, and Ilmr had promised she would see war before she was twenty.

In the meantime, she was subjected to night after night of drivel from those uncles and aunts that did not go to war. Their excuses for remaining behind were paltry at best.

Calder because he ruled the kingdom and without him, surely, the walls of the palace itself would collapse. Hillevi wondered which of her uncles would be caught under the falling debris, or if Skuld would warn them all in time. With luck, several would be killed.

Inghard had the sense and pride to go to battle most evenings, though Hillevi could sense the tremor within him. His cowardice had not yet done him in and it was truly shameful that their enemy had not yet dispatched him.

Orvar's claim to having use elsewhere was only factual if he was within the kitchens or banquet hall. Each night they had roast pheasant Hillevi hoped he would eat so quickly he choked on an errant bone he had been remiss in spotting in his hurry to eat everything in sight.

Tyr could barely bother with more than what he had to. At best he put his swordplay to use once weekly, claiming afterwards he was far too exhausted to venture forth the next evening. His skills were poor at best, she knew; given how infrequently he trained and one night it would be the death of him.

Unn made Hillevi's stomach turn, though she could not say why. The beauty in her aunt's voice and music was enrapturing. She was Hillevi's only as-yet-unmarried aunt. There was no man from any realm that Unn did not welcome into her bedchamber, only to banish them from her presence after a time. Hillevi believed that Unn was beautiful, but she did not know how so many did not see the lechery in the curve of her lips, the arch of her brow. Hillevi could only hope such a thing would eat Unn away from the inside out.

Skuld was most annoying; all self-importance and misplaced righteousness. Her ability to see what may be having allowed her too much leeway with the others and won her a handsomely rich husband, who Hillevi was sure had paid a hefty price for his wife's gifts. Ilmr was the only one who did not fawn over her, who did not fall over herself to find out what may be.

Skuld had not said it, but given the way she looked at Hillevi, infrequently and disconcerted, Hillevi knew Skuld could not see her fate. No matter the riches bestowed upon her for her gift, Skuld would –hopefully- be crushed under the many baubles she had been given as recompense before she was able to see Hillevi as she did all others.

With Loki and Ilmr away at war and the only company her useless, distasteful relatives, Hillevi had much time to herself unsupervised. Mostly, she stayed up as late as she could bear.

Practicing her gifts and the sorcery Loki taught her until the deep-set, swirling _something_ inside her, that he had told her when she was a mere five years of age was her magic, thrummed in a way she swore she could hear if she strained. Practicing the forms Ilmr taught her until she felt her muscles and bones ache with memory of them.

Other nights, she wandered the palace invisible. Before Ilmr and Loki arrived she had only been able to call upon the skill when she was distressed. Loki had taught her enough –and she had practiced enough in the years that followed- that she could call upon the ability at will.

One such night, she took it upon herself to use her skills to put her wishes and frustrations into practice.

It was long after the dinner hour and yet Orvar nearly trod over her in his stumbling, sated departure from the banquet hall. She would not have had to be invisible, given the heavy scent of wine about him. She followed him to his chambers, servants passing in a hurry about their duties ignoring the perpetually inebriated prince and unable to see the niece trailing after him.

It had been long enough and she was tired of waiting and wishing. Hillevi watched Orvar pour himself yet another generous helping of wine from a decanter in his chambers before settling into a deep, plush chair, cushion nearly bottomed out with age and the bearing of weight, and sipped hungrily, sloppily on the drink.

Loki had taught her the push and pull of an innumerable amount of things. She was nowhere near as good at this particular skill as he was. He, who could taken any item and vanish it into the folds of his garb with little more than a slight-of-hand sort of movement.

But she could move things well enough to serve her purpose.

She waited until he dozed, snoring deep, before approaching, keeping the veil of her invisibility wrapped around her. With her fist a mere hairsbreadth from his sizeable stomach, Hillevi concentrated and slowly, slowly, drew it up just high enough before splaying her fingers out and stepping back, concentrating on holding the liquid in place deep in his lungs as more filled the remaining space and his face took on a rictus of terror: he was too large to rise in a hurry and without enough air to get far even if he could stand.

With a growing smile she watched as Orvar, who was more an ambulatory boar than he ever was an uncle, gasped, coughed, and slowly went still.

* * *

When Loki and Ilmr returned that morning just after dawn broke, Hillevi was just rising. It was later than usual for her, much later, as by their return she had typically been awake for several hours in their chambers, stretching and taking a small breakfast.

Ilmr noticed immediately upon their arrival that all was not as it usually was. "Are you well, Hillevi?" She placed a hand close to Hillevi's forehead but did not touch her, as blood-stained as she still was from war.

"I am. I was merely up later than usual. I didn't intend to worry you."

At that, her favored aunt –her mother, for all intents and purposes- smiled after a short hesitation, seeming to save a remark for another time. "No matter. We will bathe and break our fast together."

Hillevi nodded, glancing to Loki as he turned from divesting of his heavier armor by their chamber doors. He, too, stopped in his tracks for but a moment before giving her a nod.

"Are you well, darling?"

"I am." Hillevi, for all her fondness for Ilmr, had a particular predilection for Loki; his magic perhaps, or his familiarity with a similar _differentness_.

"Good."

Hillevi took the time to stretch while she waited for them to finish their ablutions. She was unsure what gave them both pause, but she knew she would not have to wait long. They had always been forthright with her.

When Ilmr sat herself next to Hillevi rather than Loki, she knew something must truly be amiss. Loki twitched one hand to silence their chambers to all but the three of them.

"Did something happen on the battlefield last night?"

"No, dear." Ilmr carefully turned Hillevi's face in her hands. "Did something happen here?"

Loki watched quietly.

Hillevi nodded. "Yes."

"Something you did?" Ilmr had loosened her gentle hold, but Hillevi did nothing to move away.

"Yes."

A commotion outside their chambers cut their conversation short and Loki strode to their door, all sour expression and displeased interruption.

A servant nodded his excessive apologies before looking around Loki to Ilmr. "My – my apologies, my Lady, to interrupt you so early. So soon after arriving home. Your – your elder brother. Orvar. He is –he has –in the night. It seems he has passed. My condolences, my Lady."

Ilmr nodded, a troubled expression crossing her face and Loki's. Hillevi quickly adopted the same. She had practiced for years with them, too, to pretend to have a care for her crude, boorish relatives. For this very moment.

"Of course. Thank you. Some privacy with my family, if you please." Ilmr gave Loki a nod and without waiting for a reply from the servant, Loki shut the door in his face.

Loki twitched his hand again before he spoke. "Was this your doing, Hillevi?"

She nodded without hesitation. "Yes. You taught me how to move objects. I simply found a new place for his wine to settle."

She felt no remorse, not when she had performed the task and not now that she was recounting it. She was concerned they would reproach her, but she felt no heaviness in her heart, no shroud of guilt weighing on her shoulders.

Hillevi was surprised, nonetheless, to see a brief glance pass between Ilmr and Loki before they nodded.

Loki was the one to speak again. "Why?"

A huff of air escaped Hillevi's lips in frustration. "Because he had no _use_ , no worth! He served his gluttony only, not his King, not his Commander, only himself. He was vile and selfish. He deserved no more than he received for all he hasn't done."

Loki nodded. "We will keep this to ourselves." He held up a hand before Hillevi could speak. "We are neither of us cross with you. You are resourceful and subtle and you did not act without cause." He smiled, then. "Your training is bearing out and you are proving a pupil to be proud of."

Hillevi smiled, glancing to Ilmr seeing her nod once.

"The only siblings of mine that were of use, that were _good_ , have passed. In times of war, we must ration and now each person's ration will be slightly larger because of you. You have acted strategically, and I am proud."

"How long must we pretend to mourn?" Hillevi was well practiced at feigning her enjoyment of her relatives, but this she was not sure she could manage for long, this false lamenting.

"First we must keep you from sight for the next day or two." Ilmr gave Hillevi a small smile. "You are unusually flush and I suspect it has something to do with the effort you had to put into your magic."

Hillevi looked to Loki at that. He nodded. "It may be. Even with all of your practice, it can still take a marked amount of energy out of you. I suspect, though, that it is much of what Stark found years ago on Midgard." He leveled his gaze at her. "You have not been sleeping much, if at all."

"I have not." She had kept what Stark had told her in mind as she prepared, and knew she would need to tire herself enough to take from Orvar his life without straining too much as to be unable to perform her sorcery.

"Why?" Ilmr cut in, then. She had been made guardian of Hillevi upon her arrival in Vanaheim a decade before, but even still she cared as Hillevi suspected a true mother would.

"I want to go with you, to battle. I have trained for years, both with my sorcery and my swords. I want to go. It has been years and yes, you have both returned each morning with no grievous injuries. Luck runs out, even for the two of you. I want to go. I want to end this."

"You are not yet ready." Loki used the tone that most placated her without raising her ire.

" _Tyr_ goes once weekly and I am more skilled than he!"

"You are. But Tyr is also going to die some night on the battlefield because we will not be there to protect him. We will not mourn him. We would protect you and we would mourn you. You will end this Hillevi, make no mistake, but not now."

Hillevi huffed. She disliked Ilmr's logic despite seeing the reason in it. "When will Stark come back, then? He is due. It has been three years since we saw him last."

"We will not see him again. At least, not in Vanaheim. Mortals age much faster than we do, he is past the age for a mortal now that he should take up arms. Even the last time he was here he was too old to do such a thing."

Loki rolled his eyes at the mention of Stark's abilities.

"You think he should come back?" Hillevi chased.

"No. I agree with Ilmr. I continually remember the uselessness of mortals and tire of them anew."

"Well then if not Stark, then who will you call upon now to lend aid, even for a fortnight, to win us some small reprieve?"

Hillevi watched a look pass between Ilmr and Loki and sat back to watch the aftermath unfold.

"No. Oh, no." Loki raised both hands in a gesture that would not halt Ilmr's resolve.

"Yes. It is the only avenue left to us. None from Midgard are of any use to us, now. Stark ages, Banner is older. The Captain is out of the question. Barton and Romanoff are the youngest of them and they are nearing an age too old to be of any use for more than a handful of hours at a time. There is only one option."

Loki pinched the bridge of his nose. Finally, after a long stretch of quiet in which he did not look at Ilmr and she did not look away from him, he spoke without moving. "All right. _All right_. I will send a missive requesting his aid."

"Whose?"

Heaving a weary sigh, Loki graced Hillevi with a resigned smile. "You will soon meet yet another of your extended family who you will have no use for and who you will find an utter fool."

"Who?" She demanded. She did not like the sound of this, having just rid them of one troublesome relative.

"My…brother." He hesitated on the word before spitting it out.

"Would he come, in truth?" Hillevi learned as much in her lessons from Loki and Ilmr as she did from her tutor. Lessons in geography, strategy, mathematics, literature. History.

Loki smiled wider then. "I am the God of Lies, my dear. I am more persuasive than most. And he would truly fall over himself to meet the niece he thought he would never see."

* * *

...

* * *

"You think she is ready." As with so many of Loki's inquiries, it was not actually question. Not a statement. A demand. He did not look away from the battlefield and approaching enemy.

Ilmr nodded, not needing to glace to Loki to know how his features would be set. "No. But if she never begins, she will never be ready. She has trained for ten years. She is capable and eager."

"And likely our only way to end this war."

At that, Ilmr graced Loki with a sharp glance. "If she does not begin to put her training to use, she will never get close enough to do what she needs to."

"I dislike it nonetheless."

"If you could, I think you would prefer both Hillevi and I remain away from this battle until it's over, though I think she and I would be the only two unsurprised."

Loki gave a low chuckle. "I would never request such a thing, my lady would never allow it."

A small smile crossed Ilmr's lips as she drew her blade to face the oncoming enemy onslaught.

* * *

It was much the same as every other battle they had faced in the dead of night the past ten years. Both Vanaheim's forces and reinforcements had dug in, as had their enemy. Some nights were banal if no less chaotic for it. Others seemed to unleash a new horror, an as yet unseen marvel of the dead.

The latter was the tone of the night, it seemed.

It was not much past the midnight hour when Ilmr's forces, which had been cutting in from the west, were separated from Loki's battalion.

It had not been a slow but steady wedge between allies.

A shrill sound at Ilmr's left came at the same moment she heard the dull thud of heavy feet. Three score of the Einherjar had appeared out of thin air, weapons drawn and coming down hard on their ambushed quarry.

Ilmr had half a moment to shout a warning and command before having to tuck and roll away from the spot in which she had stood. Springing up, blade overhead, she swept aside an attack aimed at her neck and plunging a dagger blade into her adversary's heart moments later.

The Vanirian soldier on her right took a blade to his temple and Ilmr ducked to avoid both the top half of his head and the blade that continued its trajectory. She took the creatures legs out above the knee. A blade through its face was its end, though not before she took an injury to her side from a second weapon her quickly dissolving enemy had in its possession.

It was not iron.

Had there been a body remaining for her to kick, she would have done so unreservedly. As it was, she grit her teeth and wrenched the blade from her side, taking only a few moments to catch her breath while parrying oncoming blows.

A handful of smaller cuts and lacerations marred her skin, though thanks to the ring Loki had gifted her when they were betrothed, immediately began healing. Just as she regained herself a sound behind her had her turning. Slow, as the wound in her side was still closing.

Too slow, she realized.

Ilmr threw up her blade in vain defense but the blow that would have sliced deep into her shoulder never came. Instead, the creature that had managed to position itself behind her began to dissolve, one of Loki's daggers embedded in the back of its skull. Grabbing the hilt as the creature fell, she nodded to Loki before dodging to her left and with a quick leap up, slashed clean through the throat of a new attacker.

It was enough, and Loki turned away and back to his battalion.

* * *

The night seemed to stretch on longer than others in recent memory. The Einherjar were appearing and disappearing all around them. It was a new tactic that the Vanirian forces had not yet seen. It made defending oneself difficult to say the least and by dawn, Ilmr had taken many more such blows as her side had received.

By the time they arrived back at the palace, she had healed, only surface marks marred her skin. Loki, if he suffered similar wounds, showed no signs of it.

Hillevi, as was her wont, was sitting curled up with Fenrir as she awaited Ilmr and Loki's arrival with Vidar. Their hounds alternated their stations, the one watching over Hillevi at night while the other went to battle with Ilmr and Loki.

At their entrance, Hillevi's small, serene smile fell. She was used to seeing the black blood of the Einherjar. She did not often see so much of the red blood of her parents.

"What has happened?" She placed herself in front of Ilmr, face shuttered and stubborn. It would not do to show her each and every similar injury; she had sustained several and all were beginning to heal. The only true sign now was a deep ache and bloodstains on her clothing.

Bringing her hand near to -but not touching- Hillevi's face, Ilmr waited until Hillevi's expression relaxed to speak. "Battle, dear."

Ilmr stopped then, as Loki took to unbuckling her breastplate and removing it. She removed her chain mail before he could, finally shifting her shirt to expose her side and the first of many injuries that night. The skin was red and puckered, but the wound had closed.

"You see? I am well. By evening, there will be no indication that I was injured at all."

Hillevi was not satisfied, it seemed, and turned to Loki. "What has changed?"

"Much. Just as I am able to teleport, so, apparently, are the Einherjar. If it's a trait they've always possessed, this is the first time they've made use of it."

"Which means either it's new, or we're gaining some kind of upper hand." Ilmr moved to feed Vidar and Fenrir.

"I wish to go with you tonight." Hillevi had been paying much attention when she was younger. She used a tone similar to the one Ilmr did when she would brook no argument from Loki.

Loki noticed, and smiled, placing his hands on Hillevi's shoulders. "Not yet. Soon, but not yet. You are nearly ready."

"And you will both be nearly dead before I have your permission! Have you not been training me for this since you arrived in Vanaheim? I have spent almost every waking moment since I was a mere five years of age training. When will I be ready? What indication do you wait for?"

Ilmr let them speak, unfastening Loki's heavy armor as she listened.

"Hillevi, you-"

"-Would you wait until Mother is more grievously injured?"

The words were spat, angry and frustrated. And it was the first time Hillevi had ever called either of them such a name, though Ilmr knew she and Loki had thought of Hillevi as their daughter for many years now, and in turn they knew Hillevi considered them her mother and father.

There was silence then, Loki's expression at war between fondness and regret.

Ilmr did not hesitate then to draw Hillevi to her, though she had not yet washed the war from her skin.

"My dear girl." She gave her a squeeze. "You must not fret." She met Loki's eyes as she continued. "I will not be so injured, I have wards against such a thing and I imagine if I have gone to war almost every night in your memory and returned without fatal injury, then I will continue to do so."

Hillevi nodded. Loki's eyes held regret and his jaw was tight, but his smile was affectionate.

Before Loki could speak, Ilmr cut him off. "I will return shortly." She turned to their bathing room, not wanting to hear any argument from Loki that had to do with the look in his eyes.

* * *

...

* * *

He had taught her well. Too well, perhaps. She hit him right where he was most vulnerable though this time she did not know she'd done it. Hillevi was every bit the rapier-witted child he had been. At times, he forgot they did not share blood she seemed so alike in her manner.

Ilmr did not give him the opportunity to prolong the conversation. Once she had shut herself in the bathing room, Loki silenced the air around he and Hillevi.

Who narrowed her eyes. He did not keep things from Ilmr.

"Hillevi, there are some things you must know about the shared past between Ilmr and myself that we have not yet told you, for no other reason than we did not need to, and you were too young." He held up a hand to silence her indignant retort. "But you have made a point I cannot ignore."

Hillevi seated herself at their table, beginning to pile her plate with fruit and cheese and several cuts of meat. "That I should be going with you tonight?"

Loki raised an eyebrow, seating himself but not yet eating. "That Ilmr may be more grievously injured."

"So might you be."

"I am Aesir, it is much harder to so injure me, and I have my sorcery." He sighed, rubbing absently at one eyebrow for several moments before continuing. "I am inclined to train you for the next fortnight rather intensively." He shot a pointed look Hillevi's way. " _Without_ Ilmr's knowledge."

"Why?" She watched him carefully, her dark eyes penetrating. Her eyes were something Loki greatly appreciated about her. They swallowed light, endless maws that seemed to unsettle all but he an Ilmr.

"Because she has been injured before. So grievously that she died."

The flicker of Hillevi's eyelids was the only indication that she was startled. "You retrieved her from Helheim."

"Yes. The Mad Titan took and tortured her for my failings when I could not repay him a mighty debt. He stripped her of herself and it took far longer than I would have liked to bring her back to herself."

"You think this war is at the behest of Mistress Death."

It was not a thing he had said to any except Ilmr and the Man of Iron.

"Yes. I think she expected that I would fail before now and because I have not, she plots to gain the pair of us by force."

"Both of you?" Something shifted in Hillevi's eyes; it seemed to Loki a shadow moved, predatory, behind them.

"That was our bargain. I could bring Ilmr with me back from Helheim provided I never set foot in Asgard again. If I did, Death would take both of us as recompense. I think she assumed I would not be able to deny the lure of the Realm Eternal and try to find a way back in. That I have not she considers an offense, I think."

"How will you prepare me?"

Loki gave Hillevi a sly smile. "I will incapacitate, and return with, captives. You will fight your enemy until you kill him. A fortnight of this and you will be better prepared than you would otherwise be."

Hillevi nodded. "And then I will join you. You will not waylay me."

"I will not. But it will take us time to draw out Death, you understand."

"It matters not. When we draw her out, she will be killed." Hillevi hesitated then and glanced to Loki. "She can be killed, can't she? I hear you say it but I don't understand how."

"I think she can be. Much like Bor passed his reign on to Odin and then Thor, each realm's ruler eventually passes on their crown; those that have crowns, at least. I think it's time we began experimenting very carefully with the Man of Iron's findings from when you were a child."

Hillevi gave him a sly smile. "I already have."

"Oh?"

She shrugged. "I have practiced more on fruit. Small animals that I've found in the courtyard. Some hanging plants."

"And?"

"The plants and fruit are easy, but I need to concentrate harder when it's an animal. I find I am at once drained and refreshed. I will need further practice if I am to meet Mistress Death on the battlefield."

Loki nodded. "Then I will see it done. We will protect your mother, and defeat Mistress Death."

Hillevi was unable to add anything further, hearing the bathing room door open, and with a fond, conspiratorial smile, Loki quickly let his enchantment drop.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10 – Asgard**

A/N: I hope two chapters in one day makes up for a year without an update, and thank you to everyone that's stuck with me! I will finish it, though it will likely still be slow going for a while. Fortunately I have most of it written in my head; unfortunately, I still have to get it out on the page!

I hope you enjoy this next installment and I'm going to try to be better about posting more frequently!

This chapter starts from Hillevi's point of view then shifts to Ilmr's after the double break.

Loki had devised a way of capturing Einherjar and bringing them back to the castle for Hillevi to spar with. Given how he had managed to secure a dead one several years ago, Hillevi supposed he was freezing them and enchanting the space in which she sparred. How, she was never sure, but she had been sure to make him promise to make her a sorceress of equal measure, when she was grown.

They practiced for half a week before Ilmr caught them.

By now, Loki was bringing two of the Einherjar back from battle. She was defeating one quickly and it was unrealistic to think she would be fighting them one at a time.

Hillevi relished it. They practiced in the largest dungeon cell to mimic the tight space on the battlefield. She heard the approach of quiet steps as she circled the remaining Einherjar but did not halt; her opponent would kill her if given the opportunity.

Ilmr said nothing. Loki inclined his head in greeting but remained silent.

Hillevi feigned right and quickly dodged left, slicing through the creatures arm above the elbow. It gave a horrifying shriek that Loki had assured her none would hear outside of their cell.

It struck back, slashing and jabbing forcefully. Hillevi was glad, not for the first time, for all of her training with Ilmr; she was quick enough on her feet to avoid all but two of the creature's attacks, earning her a gash across her forearm and another more shallow injury on her thigh.

Dodging another blow Hillevi dropped low, sweeping through the creatures legs at the knee and continuing her circular motion, swept its head off as she came around to face it again just as it dropped down.

The creature vanished in a haze of smoke.

Hillevi stood, catching her breath and turned to face her parents. Loki approached, laying his hands on her injuries to heal them.

It was after he stood that Ilmr spoke.

"Well done, Hillevi dear. You are progressing well." She looked to Loki, but spoke still to Hillevi. "How many days have you been practicing?"

Hillevi had not found reason to fear anything in her short life, but she did recognize when Ilmr used that tone it meant a battle of the wills was imminent.

"Half a week, as of yesterday."

Ilmr nodded. Hillevi watched Loki's jaw work but yet he remained silent. For all their willfulness, they were often able to read the other in a way Hillevi did not see others able to.

"When do you expect she will be prepared for battle?"

If Hillevi had ever heard a more baited question, she did not remember. Loki studied his wife carefully for several moments before replying. "Another fortnight."

Ilmr nodded and after some consideration she turned and left without another word.

"For the God of Lies, she catches you in the midst of many."

Loki cracked a smile. "One of the things I appreciate most, about your _mother_ , is her ability to tell my truths. She does not need to be able to read my lies."

Hillevi nodded, ignoring his emphasis on the name she had given Ilmr not a week before. "You intended for her to discover us."

"Yes."

"When will your brother arrive?" Catching Loki off-balance was difficult. She had only ever seen Ilmr do it on a handful of occasions at best.

Loki clicked his tongue, motioning for her to lead the way back to their chambers. "In a handful of days. He will remain for a week to assess the situation and then return with a contingency from Asgard."

Hillevi knew little of Loki's history with his brother. With Thor. Asgard's King. Her tutors, she knew, had been instructed not to teach her of the history of the two, her parents preferring she hear the tale from them. Hillevi had resolved to ask only when necessary.

She had also resolved to visit the Realm Eternal, if ever she had the opportunity. It sounded as a dream. She had seen Midgard and heard the tales of Asgard from both Loki and Ilmr. Loki could never return there, but she knew Ilmr could.

* * *

She wasn't sure what to expect from Loki's brother. She had certainly heard many a tale of his prowess and his might. She did not expect his utter silence and stillness.

She should have, Hillevi knew, given the way Loki's lips twitched upwards at the corners at his small bit of mischief. He had not told Thor of their adopted daughter.

Walking in with Ilmr from their practice, it was easy to discern his thoughts at the sight of them.

"You did not tell me that you and the Lady Ilmr had had a child, Brother."

"I am adopted."

Thor startled at her voice.

She could not help the small smile that crossed her face. "They are my parents, to be sure, but I am not of them."

Thor looked back to Loki, whose self-satisfied smile had widened.

"You are lucky then, to have had such parents that you can say so." He was treading carefully, this new-crowned King. He looked to Ilmr then. "And how do you fare, Lady Ilmr?"

She nodded once as she shed her training gear, sparing only a glance for such a mighty guest. "Well, considering a decade of war with beings there seem to be an endless supply of."

"Would that you had contacted me sooner, I would have come. I will battle alongside you for several days before returning to Asgard to amass a contingency."

"I will join you. I would pick my generals myself." Ilmr turned to give Hillevi a small smile. "You will assist me."

Hillevi nodded. Before she could speak, Loki did.

"Fenrir's presence is requisite."

Thor eyed the hound that was likely considerably smaller when last he saw him. "I do not know that he will be necessary. They are members of the House of Odin and my guests besides. No harm will come to either of them."

"I have little faith in a people whose contempt was thinly-veiled before my fall into the abyss. Fenrir will make the journey, or you will return to Asgard alone."

Thor exhaled hard through his nose, thunder rolling in the distance.

Loki laughed. "I remain unmoved, even by so mighty a thing as Mjolnir."

With a curt nod, Thor acquiesced.

* * *

She was lounging curled up to Fenrir with a book when Loki wordlessly sat beside her. Ilmr and Thor had gone not half an hour previous to take a meal together and discuss the coming trip to Asgard.

He waited several minutes before speaking. "You have heard some of my tale. It is time you heard the rest."

Setting her book aside, Hillevi sat up straighter.

And so he told her, in a low, quite voice, of growing up in Asgard. The magic his mother fostered, the inadequacy Odin reinforced that drove a wedge between he and Thor as they aged. He told her of a plan gone wrong, gone too far, and the brutal consequences. Of discovering his heritage and the anguish it brought him. How he struggled to accept it as his lot. He glossed over his fall into the abyss, merely mentioning that it happened and what found him there was truly a horror unmatched. He told her of Ilmr's capture, his search for her, and her death. Again, he made brief his mention of her state upon her return to the living.

When he was finished nearly an hour later, Hillevi was silent for a stretch and it seemed he expected as much.

"You think they will poison me against you."

"I think they will try."

"They would not succeed."

At that, Loki smiled and smoothed her hair before speaking again. "You must promise me you will not be without Fenrir."

She nodded.

"They will know you as my kin, and given your age would rightly assume that you are my daughter. There is no love for me there and I will not risk their prejudice falling to you. You must not be without him."

"I will not be."

He nodded.

* * *

Loki had not been pleased that Ilmr would travel with Thor to Asgard to hand-pick the generals that would lead Asgard's contingency. Or that she would be bringing Hillevi. Ilmr nonetheless won out and Loki had seen them off with his jaw clenched and the briefest of nods.

Ilmr had given Hillevi one simple directive before the Bifrost hurtled them through the cosmos: observe everything.

Ilmr not only taught her the finer points of battle, but also how to be the Commander Ilmr was.

To best your enemy, she had said, you must know him as completely as possible.

Hillevi had merely nodded. She had heard the stories, though they never named Ilmr. The Wrath of Egil had made a name for herself, though it wasn't her own. Ilmr did not simply best an enemy. She broke them if they came with weapons, and bent them to her will if they came with words.

By now, Hillevi had learned from Ilmr and her siblings that Ilmr did not have the elf-gift. Hillevi did not believe it. Loki might have been the Silvertongue, but Ilmr had a persuasive way that was decidedly uncommon.

Hillevi felt the ground solidify underfoot. Asgard. Three realms now, she had seen. Loki had told her of the Gatekeeper. Of his penetrating gaze and voice that seemed to envelop.

He, too, looked uneasily at Hillevi, as though much like Skuld, he could not see her. It would explain much.

Though they had just set foot in Asgard, Hillevi struggled to remain unimpressed. She felt she was failing spectacularly.

The Observatory was it's own wonder of gold and gears, but the Rainbow Bridge was something else entirely. Thor took the lead in front of she and Ilmr behind their escort. Not a one of their armed guards seemed to notice anything out of the ordinary, though in fairness they seemed distracted by Fenrir's sheer size.

The bridge lit up underfoot with each step. Each step that the guards, Thor, and Ilmr took. They did not notice that Hillevi's steps elicited no light. On the contrary, each step she took dimmed the bright stone underfoot momentarily.

By the time they reached the road to the palace, Hillevi felt abuzz with energy.

"I thought you might have been too excited to sleep well." Ilmr whispered low enough that only elven ears would hear.

Hillevi smiled briefly.

"Come. My father would greet you."

"Happily?" Ilmr gave Thor a wry smile.

"I may be King, Sister, but he is still the Allfather. Only upon his death will such a title belong to me and my tutelage completed."

Ilmr nodded. "It seems you are learning well the art of redirection. Lead the way."

With a brief nod, Thor turned and led them to the throne room, though it seemed as though Ilmr did not need directions.

Once standing at the foot of the dais, Thor stepped off to one side.

"Strange to see you here without a punishment on the horizon, is it not?" Odin gave her a smug smile.

"Oh I'm sure we can procure a transgression or two, Allfather, for old times sake."

Odin gave a bark of laughter at that.

"My son tells me Vanaheim is under siege and requires our aid."

Ilmr nodded. "For quite some time, yes, we have been at war."

"You are here to request aid."

"I am here to hand-pick my generals before leaving with a contingency and your King."

Odin turned his eye for the first time, to Hillevi. "And are you her apprentice?"

"Her daughter."

His singular eye widened. "Her -you" he cleared his throat, glaring at Ilmr. "And when, Lady Laufeyson, were you planning to tell me I had a grandchild?"

Hillevi knew Loki's history from both he and Ilmr. She used utmost effort to conceal her smile at Ilmr's response.

"We adopted her several years ago, when we first returned to Vanaheim. I suspect you would have learned of her eventually."

"I see." He looked a bit uneasy.

"It would seem adoption suited us."

An expression Hillevi could only call restrained fury settled upon the Allfather's face.

"And yet you expect me to grant you access to a contingency of Asgardian warriors?"

"No. I expect your son will. I am here because you requested my presence. I am still wondering what for."

An exasperated sigh escaped Odin and Hillevi wondered at how used to this banter they were.

"He cannot return, I am told."

"No."

"Because of you."

"He cannot return because between myself and Asgard, he chose me." Ilmr paused momentarily. "You do not understand why?"

"I do."

"Again, I wonder at why I am here."

"I was informed of a third member of your party and I desired to see her."

"Strange, you have spent much of the time since we arrived avoiding her." Ilmr took half a step back and towards Hillevi so that she stood behind her.

Hillevi waited, patient, under the Allfather's gaze.

"What is your name?"

"Hillevi."

He stared silently for a stretch. "I am not under any illusion that you know much of me, or that what you know of me is flattering. I would instead enjoy the opportunity, while you are here, to know you better."

It was a pretty trap, Hillevi would grant him that much, and waited an appropriate amount of time before responding to seem as though she were considering it.

"Thank you, Allfather, and if I have the opportunity, I will take it. As it stands, I am here as part of my studies."

Odin's eye flicked briefly to Ilmr before falling again on Hillevi.

"I see. If you have spare time, please seek me out."

Hillevi nodded.

"I would imagine our old chambers are still available for our use."

Thor, apparently the recipient of Ilmr's statement, nodded. "Indeed, Sister! You are no stranger to our halls, please make yourself at home again."

Ilmr gave a brief bow to Thor and Hillevi followed suit. Without affording Odin the same courtesy of genuflecting, Ilmr nodded for Hillevi to follow her, and strode from the hall.

* * *

"I didn't imagine he would attempt such a thing at our first meeting." Hillevi sat on the edge of the bed, surveying the chambers Loki and Ilmr had once called home.

"Odin wastes little time. You handled it with aplomb, however." Ilmr stowed her rucksack and lowered herself to one of the settees.

"Do you think I will have to meet with him?"

"No. He may be the Allfather, but I am your mother. I will refuse him the audience."

Hillevi nodded.

"Now, What did you see?"

"Two guards stand watch at the inner gates, four at the outer. Those that patrol the halls of the palace do so at regular intervals: every half hour, from the sound of their footfall. I would estimate two hundred patrol the palace in total, given how many we've seen since we arrived and how large the palace looks."

Ilmr nodded. "Two hundred and fifty. And outside the palace?"

"Outside, there are many in roads and ways out of the city into greener lands, but the Rainbow Bridge is the only way in or out of Asgard. Heimdall sees everything, here or elsewhere. But he doesn't see me. He gave me the same uneasy look Skuld does. And the Bridge, as you know, I absorbed some of its energy." She paused, trying her best not to fidget at the reminder of the buzz under her skin. "May we spar?"

"In here." At Hillevi's look, she continued. "The Gatekeeper cannot see you. I do not know what other beings that can see all cannot see you. The fewer minds that think on you, the more likely you are to be a surprise to our enemy when she finally meets you."

Hillevi nodded, satisfied, and rose to help move furniture out of the way.

* * *

After breaking their fast on their first day in Asgard, Thor requested an audience with Hillevi. Ilmr merely nodded, and dismissed them from her sight as she poured over military records of Asgard's standing army.

Hillevi followed Thor's hulking form, down hallways and around corners and past beautiful, intricate stained-glass windows.

He showed her the library first. For all his bumbling and volume, he was perceptive. He was right to think she would have loved the place.

"There are more books here than I have ever seen."

He laughed, quietly somehow. "Lady I- your mother had the same reaction when she first saw our collection and I had a feeling you too would enjoy it. Between she and my brother you must have quite the appetite for knowledge."

Hillevi merely hummed in agreement, too taken with the staggering number of books.

He gave her several minutes to look around before he spoke again.

"Hillevi, what do you know of Loki's life?"

She regarded him for several moments. "Much."

Thor loosed a rather unexpected laugh. "The wit of my brother with the temperance of his wife. You are already a force to reckon with, I am sure."

She nodded, but offered nothing else.

He eased himself onto one of the oversized chairs, motioning with a hand to the empty one beside his. Once she had settled, he spoke again.

"We were not always so distant, he and I. As we grew our interests differed but we were always close."

"What happened?" She knew already, from Loki's account, but she had an interest in what Thor would say for himself.

"I was not always supportive. He was not always willing to compromise. The gap grew. I believe Ilmr was the first person he felt comfortable around in some time. He was less reticent and was becoming more affectionate. Then he fell." Thor looked troubled.

This part Hillevi was especially interested in. Loki had told her of it, but only some.

"The abyss."

"Even so, little sister. We thought him dead. When he returned, he was not himself, not even a shade of the man he was on even his darkest days."

Thor did not seem to have noticed the nickname, and he was too poor a liar for Hillevi to have missed it if it were a tactic of some kind. It endeared him, even marginally, to her in a way she hadn't anticipated.

"He sounds to be much more the man he was before his fall."

"I suspect that was much the doing of Ilmr and yourself."

"You believe it is an act."

Thor glanced at her too quickly to seem anything but caught unawares.

"Why?"

"He has twice deceived me to think him dead. He had brought war and death to a realm I love. There was a time I would have believed him earnest. Now I can only doubt and have patience while I wait for his plot to reveal itself." He sighed, giving her a sad smile. "When it happens, you have a place here, should you wish it."

"What do you imagine he plots?" A slight widening of the eyes was too subtle too be noticed, but enough to add an air of naiveté.

"He yearns for the throne of Asgard. He wishes to prove his worth."

Hillevi furrowed her brow. Thor had to know of Loki's choice. The account she had been told of how he traveled to Midgard from Helheim ensured Heimdall knew of the events in Hel.

"He cannot gain the throne here. You know as much."

"He will find a way."

She twisted her lips to one side. "He might think to risk himself, but not her. He has given too much to do such a thing."

Thor regarded her quietly for a stretch, giving a small nod after a time. "I hope you are right, for Ilmr's sake and his."

Hillevi nodded. Thor may have claimed his loyalty and trust in his brother were no more, but he spoke more from a place of suspicion and hope than utter distrust and despair.

It was enough. If need be, it could be exploited, she knew. Loki would never request Thor's aid, but that was not to say she or Ilmr would not. Thor had a great love for Ilmr, and apparently, some amount of affection for Hillevi.

It was enough.

* * *

...

* * *

"I have not seen Jane, is she here?" the woman who set so much in motion was one Ilmr wished she had had a chance to speak with; the only words they had exchanged were mere pleasantries and then orders when the Dark Elves arrived nearly a decade previous.

Thor shook his head. "No. She is in Midgard." He beamed, then. "She has accepted my proposal and prepares to make Asgard her new home."

It was after dinner on their third day in Asgard and she and Hillevi had retired to Thor's antechamber.

Ilmr raised her eyebrows. "I am surprised Odin has agreed to it."

Thor gave a wily smile that reminded Ilmr so much of Loki's mischief that she felt a stab of grief at Frigga's loss. She had surely been the one to foster their play.

"He had not necessarily given his blessing. He was inclined to agree because I gave him no other option. Either we would be wed with his approval and remain in Asgard, or he would refuse and I would return to Midgard."

Ilmr nodded. It seemed Thor's patience for Odin's demands was wearing thin.

"We will return to Vanaheim in three days' time. I assume you have alerted Asgard's forces to report tomorrow morning to the arena for selection."

Thor nodded. "Indeed. I assume you have already chosen your generals."

Ilmr smiled. "I have several in mind. One whom I will be seeing shortly." She looked to Hillevi, then. "If you wish it, you may remain with Thor while I am on this errand."

She nodded, and Ilmr rose.

"Then I will see you in our chambers in a short time." She was glad once again that she had brought Fenrir. Vidar might have been a more serious creature, but Fenrir was more protective of Hillevi.

Taking her leave of them, Ilmr made her way down into the market square and into a quiet tavern. She had forgotten how long the trip from the palace could take on foot and was nearly late.

She slid into the seat across from her companion.

"My apologies, I've nearly forgotten how long it can take to shoulder through the crowds." She was not sure how she would be received and for the first time in many years, Ilmr waited with anticipation for a reply.

"You have been away for quite some time. I wondered if you'd remember this place at all." Sif gave a wary smile.

"We didn't come often, only after visiting the smith, usually."

"You said you wanted to speak to me. I admit, I was as curious as I was wary."

"I would ask you to fight alongside me again. War has come to Vanaheim, brought by Mistress Death herself, and if I may choose my generals myself, I would have no one before you."

"Flattery will not help."

Ilmr gave a small smile. "Fortunately, I have not felt the need for such a thing."

"Why would I help you?" She was hurt, more than anything, Ilmr could hear as much.

"Because I am your friend."

"My friend? A friend does not do what you have done. When last I saw you, you had nearly died thanks to that snake, and yet you chose him over us. You still remain at his side."

"If I thought you a lesser friend to Thor, I would think you did not know the story. I know you do. I know he told you of what happened to me."

"And the fault of it is not yours. It is his. And yet you still call him husband. I thought you wiser. I will not follow a fool making play she is Commander."

"I call him husband because of what he gave up to bring me back from death and from madness. Your pride is in your loyalty, Sif. My pride too is a bedfellow of loyalty."

Sif hesitated several moments. "I still will not follow a fool."

"Then I will not further waste your time."

"You will not see reason?" Sif's question halted Ilmr's slide from the bench.

"It is me she's after, Sif."

She left her then, weaving back through the throngs of people in the marketplace and back up towards the palace.

* * *

"Did she agree?" Hillevi looked up from her book upon hearing Ilmr's entrance.

"No, my dear, she will not." Ilmr shrugged off the riding cloak she had worn and headed for the washroom. "We can discuss more once I'm out of the bath, if you wish."

She only half listened to hear Hillevi's reply. It had been years -since she had thought Loki dead- that she felt an uncomfortable welling behind her eyes.

Sif had been her first friend in centuries, and certainly the first who had shared her interests so intensely as a woman.

It brought Ilmr a sadness she hadn't expected. She would not ask Thor to require Sif's presence, but she would nonetheless sorely miss her prowess in battle and her direct approach.

She did not linger long in the bath and once she had settled on one of the settees, Hillevi spoke.

"Why does she refuse?"

Hillevi knew of the friendship between Ilmr and Sif and had heard of their time battling together in Nidavelir.

Ilmr sighed. "Because she is hurt and she fears for me."

With brow furrowed, Hillevi persisted. "That does not follow. Would she then not want to join our cause?"

"She is hurt that it has been so long since we last spoke. She fears for me because I still remain with Loki and she distrusts him."

As Ilmr suspected, a cross look blanketed Hillevi's features briefly. "Does she not know what has happened?"

"She does. Sif is too close a friend to Thor to be ignorant of the tale. Hillevi, she -and many others- have always been wary of Loki. Outright distrustful and malicious, even. She is not alone and though I find their treatment of him abhorrent, little will be done to change it. Not after our failure in Jotunheim."

Though her expression remained blank, Ilmr could see Hillevi's slight shifting, as though she could wriggle out of her frustration.

"Then she is no friend."

At that, Ilmr smiled. "She is a true friend." Ilmr held up a hand to stop Hillevi's retort. "She acts as she does out of concern for me. And I think she may change her mind about joining us. Sif is not one to turn down a battle."

* * *

As suspected, when Ilmr and Hillevi met Thor in the arena, she saw Sif standing front and center with a dozen others being considered for general positions in Asgard's contingency.

She had not expected to see Birger or Asmund present, but they were. She had requested them, but did not expect them, given the lack of love the realm had for Loki and her intimate association with him.

She surveyed the twelve would-be generals before her. She had requested only ten. Two others had either expressed interest or Thor had hand-picked them.

Asgard's contingency would be considerable, but not so large as to need more than half of those before her.

Hillevi stood several paces behind her, Fenrir seated next to her, far more serious a presence than was his wont.

After several minutes Ilmr nodded, glancing to Thor only briefly before speaking to the warriors before her.

"Einar, Birger, Halstein, Asmund, Ragnarr."

Stepping forward they bowed slightly to Ilmr and Thor before standing aside.

She approached Sif then, standing close enough to keep their conversation from all but Hillevi.

"I thought you would not follow a fool into battle."

Sif's lips twitched slightly but her face was otherwise masked. "I have followed Thor on far more foolish errands than this."

Ilmr nodded. "And in this endeavor you would follow orders not only from myself, but from both of Frigga's sons?"

An almost imperceptible jaw clench and a stretch of several moments. "Yes."

"When we are finished here today, I would ask that you seek me out in my former chambers."

Sif nodded.

With that, Ilmr stepped back, nodding to Thor before speaking aloud for those remaining before her to hear. "And the Lady Sif."

It did not take long after for the chosen generals, with the signal from Ilmr, to choose their battalions from those in the arena.

Predictably, Sif chose Fandral and Volstagg to fight alongside her. They were only too happy to join her on their journey where no doubt Hogun would be waiting for them in Vanaheim.

"We will leave for Vanaheim tomorrow at midday, Sister. I will alert Heimdall to prepare for another Bifrost site on the battlefield." Thor fell in step beside her as they made their way back into the palace from the arena.

"No."

Thor furrowed his brow. "No?"

Ilmr lowered her voice. "They are able to teleport, as Loki does. It would be impossible to keep the site secure. After dawn each day we can send the wounded back for healing, but it would be impossible in the midst of battle."

Thor sobered, and turned towards the armory.


End file.
